Naruto: Hidden Leaf Samurai
by charizardlover264
Summary: Naruto Namikaze is the son of the Fourth Hokage, with a monstrous nine tailed fox sealed inside him since he was born, and on top of that, he's found out he has a cousin, a female samurai from the Land of Iron: Yukimura Uzumaki. Together with Naruto's crush, Sakura Haruno and their sensei, Anko Mitarashi, Naruto and Yukimura must overcome any and all challenges in their way.
1. Prologue

Prologue: The night of the Nine-Tails attack!

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, VIZ Media and Shonen Jump. Yukimura Uzumaki belongs to me. (Also, yes, foxes are just wild dogs for those of you who didn't know. This series is based off of the English dub of the Anime with some adjustments to it. There will also be references to anything related to samurai terminology or events.)

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Twelve years ago, a nine tailed fox suddenly appeared! It's tails lashed out, smashing mountains and sending tidal waves crashing to the shores. The ninja rose up to defend their villages. One of them ordered out, "Hold the attack, and wait for the Fourth Hokage!" While another, who was seriously wounded shouted,"It's getting closer, don't let it near the village!"

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Elsewhere...

"OH GODS! I'M GONNA DIE HERE!" Was all that could be heard at 1:00 in the morning at the Hidden Leaf Village's hospital. Outside the room, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage was waiting impatiently for the birth of his new child. Yet he was also concerned about what happened moments earlier. A man with a flame patterned mask on his face with only one eyehole managed to extract the Nine-Tailed Fox from his wife, Kushina Uzumaki without managing to harm her. Minato encountered this man and fought furiously to protect his wife and unborn child. In the midst of the conflict, he managed to wound the man with his Rasengan combined with his Flying Raijin Jutsu. As he fled the man shouted, "This is far from over, Hokage!"

As he dwelt on the matter of who that man was in the hospital, one of the nurses approached him, "Lord Hokage. It's an emergency, your wife needs you." Minato rushed into the room donning his Hokage haori. Kushina was going through the most excruciating pain, as she had tears streaming down her face. Minato immediately rushed to her side and gripped her hand. "It's okay, honey. I'm here for you." The Red Hot Habanero looked to her husband, the yellow flash of the leaf village,"Minato..." Kushina let out one great push and screeched in agony as their child was about to come out. "Good work, milady. I can see his head, just keep pushing and you'll be fine." Kushina pushed with all her might then all was silent in the hospital, but it was quickly shattered by the crying of the Hokage's newborn son.

Minato and Kushina were overjoyed. "He's beautiful." Kushina held her child in her arms, "He has your hair, Minato, as well as my natural looks." Minato smiled, "Welcome into the world, Naruto Namikaze." However the young couple's happiness was shattered by a shaking of the land. Minato looked outside the window and couldn't believe what he saw. The Nine-Tailed Fox which was within Kushina had been released. "So that's what he was after." For a moment the Fox's eyes looked as if they were the same as the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, but then they switched to their normal animalistic ones. Kushina knew that the man who removed the fox from her could now no longer control it. Yet time was running short. "Minato. I can't have the energy to become the Jinchuriki for the Nine-Tails again, its too risky." Minato then looked at their son. "Maybe, but there is still hope. Naruto's the only hope that we as well as the Hidden Leaf Village has."

Kushina would've protested greatly, but knowing how dire the situation was, she nodded, "If he comes back with so much as a scrape, I'll kick your ass." Minato looked back at her as he left the room,"Got it, dear. Not a scratch!" He then teleported to an empty plain in the forest, then let loose some blood from his thumb as he hit it on the ground, "Summoning Jutsu!"In an instant and with a puff of smoke, Minato and Naruto were atop the back of Gamabunta, the giant toad that was often summoned by Minato's former sensei, Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin. "So I assume that the Nine-Tailed Fox is the reason you summoned me?" Minato nodded, "That's right. I need you to engage it while I try sealing it away inside the body of my son, Naruto." The great toad gripped his tanto dagger,"I'll see what I can do, Minato. I'll leave the sealing Jutsu to you."

As they lept to the battlefield, Minato could see a jonin run off with a boy in his right arm. The boy was shouting, "Lemme go! My mom and dad are still fighting back there!" When Gamabunta arrived, he instantly used the Toad Blade cut to weaken the fox severely, though it had already suffered enough by the attacks led by the Jonin defending the village against it. He was soon joined by his predecessor, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. "It's been quite a while, Minato." The yellow flash of the Leaf Village nodded at the old man, "You seem to be faring well, Hiruzen." The old Hokage asked, "How do you plan to seal it away?" Minato showed his predecessor his son wrapped in a blanket,"I'm going to have Naruto be its Jinchuriki. I promised Kushina that I'd bring him back alive and in one piece, so I'll not be using the Reaper death seal for this round." Hiruzen nodded, "A risky plan, but it's worth a shot. Be careful, Lord Hokage."

Minato made the hand signs for his signature Eight trigram sealing Jutsu, as the Fox had already lacked all of it's Yin Chakra from the failed summoning. With this in mind, Minato activated his trump card, "Eight Trigram Sealing Jutsu!" The fox howled in anger as it was sealed away inside Naruto's body. Leaving only the seal itself on Naruto's belly and whisker markings on his cheeks, but the noise was so loud it caused him to cry. Minato, bounced his son within his arms, "Shhh. It's okay Naruto. Daddy's here for you." Hiruzen laughed in victory, "Well, we certainly put down one rabid dog, that's for certain." Minato chuckled alongside him. "Hiruzen, I would like for you to act as Hokage in times when I can't be available. Is that alright?" The old man nodded, "Of course. I can make it to see a few more decades." He then looked at Naruto, "This boy just saved us all. He'll grow up to be a great shinobi like his father. I'm certain of it." Minato smiled and headed back to the hospital.

When Kushina finally saw her husband and son again, she was relieved, "Oh thank goodness. You're both okay!" They kissed softly as Kushina held Naruto in her arms, he was smiling and giggling at his mother. Kushina looked to her husband, "Hey, Minato! Our son's got his own set of whiskers!" Minato nodded, then stared outside the window, watching the sun rise slowly in the milky sky. For on this day, millions of people were saved by his son: Naruto Namikaze, of the Village Hidden in the Leaves...


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Scarlet haired Samurai girl.

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Six Years later...

On a beautiful spring day, Naruto and his mother, Kushina Uzumaki were out for a stroll towards the local playground. Along the way there, all the villagers were giving Naruto an icy grimacing look on their faces because of the fox spirit his father sealed within him. "Mom, why do the villagers hate me?" Kushina laughed nervously, "J-just don't mind them, sweetheart. Your dad's the fourth Hokage after all." She then glared at them with her infamous wrath, as a way of telling them, 'Try killing my son, and I'll beat you to a bloody pulp!' The villagers jumped back a bit, wanting not to incur the renowned anger of the Leaf Village's Red Hot Habanero.

The only people who ever treated Naruto with kindness were friends of his parents, Mikoto Uchiha who gave birth to her second son, Sasuke moments before the Nine Tailed Fox attacked. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the former Third Hokage was almost like a grandfather in Naruto's eyes, Kakashi Hatake, one of Minato's former pupils would drop by every so often and chat with his sensei when he had the chance,and finally there was his godfather, Jiraiya, who had once tutored Minato and taught him the Rasengan.

Upon reaching the park, Kushina smiled at her son, "Okay Naruto, I gotta go run a quick errand, so don't leave the park while I'm gone, got it?" Naruto nodded his head with a big grin on his face, "Okay mom." Naruto ran over to the swing set and started swinging himself in what would feel like eternal bliss. Though he started to think back on the villagers and their gossip about him. "Why is lady Kushina taking that monster out in daylight?" "He should be locked in a cage." "How could that brat possibly lord Hokage's son?" This upset Naruto a lot, it also caused a lot of children to be afraid of him, despite the fact that Hiruzen decreed that nobody could gossip about the boy's connection to the dog so that he may be able to have an ordinary childhood.

He soon just found himself sitting there, dwelling on why the villagers hated him so much, but his depressing thoughts were soon shattered by the sound of laughing from the far edge of the park. Naruto hid in the bushes to see what was going on. When he finally got close enough, he could hear a group of boys shouting, "Hey, billboard brow!" "Look at the size of her forehead!" "Yeah, and that bright pink hair! No way I'd play with a freak like her!" Naruto could see whom they were taunting, a little girl who was just about his age, with pale skin just sitting on the ground hugging her knees, crying. She had bright pink hair, almost the same color of cherry blossom trees in full bloom.

Upon hearing the boys call her a freak, Naruto's fury showed for the first time. "Hey! Pick on someone your own size, you scumbags!" He then dashed out of the bushes and glared down at them. Their leader, Hibachi was obviously not impressed. "And what are you gonna do about it, small fry?" "Shut up! You guys have no right picking on little girls! Believe it!" "Heh! Looks like we got ourselves a hero! Why don't we show this little runt who he's up against fellas?" Yet his lackeys were scared out of their minds. "Hi-hibachi! th-that's the Hokage's kid!" "Y-yeah, his mom's the Red hot Habanero!" They then ran away screaming, in fear that Kushina would knock them senseless into next week. "Get back here you chickens! He doesn't-" Hibachi was then knocked around, as Naruto beat him until he ended up with a black eye and a bloody nose. Seeing that his lackeys weren't kidding when they said Naruto was the Hokage's son, Hibachi fled the scene, scared out of his wits.

"Yeah, you'd better run! And don't come back!" Naruto turned to check on the girl, who was now a bit shocked about his strength. When she looked up at her savior, Naruto saw her jade green eyes. 'Wow...She's actually kinda cute.' "Hey, are you okay?" The girl looked back up at him sniffling. "Wh-who are you?" "Oh! I'm Naruto. Who are you?" Although a bit surprised that she was meeting the Hokage's son, she sniffled out, "M-my name's...Sakura." Naruto crouched down so that he got to her eye level "It's nice to meet you Sakura. So those knuckleheads were making fun of you because of your forehead?" Sakura nodded as more tears trickled down her cheeks. Naruto placed his head on her forehead, "Well, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure it's kinda big, but I think it makes you look cute." Sakura blushed a bit at the compliment, 'He's so...kind and thoughtful.'

At that point Naruto helped Sakura onto her feet. "So, uh...Sakura, wanna be friends?" Sakura was surprised at this, and blushed, "You're just making fun of me, aren't you?" Naruto shook his head, "No way. I'm serious. A lot of people hate my guts, I've always got nobody to play with, and also...I kinda like you." Naruto's face began turning more red with each word. Sakura just smiled and fidgeted with her fingers, "Well, I feel bad for you, Naruto but I think we should get to know more about ourselves first." "Okay. My mom's the Red Hot Habanero, and my dad's the Fourth Hokage, the ninja who defeated the Nine Tailed Fox and saved the village." Sakura's eyes widened, "Your dad's the Hokage? That is so cool! My parents are both ninja, but my mommy prefers not to go on missions as much as my daddy. I'm also gonna attending the Academy in a few weeks." "So am I!" Kushina returned at that moment, "Naruto? Who's this?" The 6 year old turned to hug her and smiled as he jumped into her arms, "Mom!"

Naruto then turned to look at Sakura, "Oh! Mom, I made a new friend today." Kushina laughed and approached Sakura, "It's nice to meet you little lady. I'm Naruto's mom, Kushina Uzumaki." Sakura then bowed to Kushina, "I-I'm Sakura Haruno. It's really nice to meet you lady Kushina!" The Hokage's wife just chuckled and knelt down to Sakura's eye level. "Just call me Kushina, from now on Sakura. Okay?" Sakura nodded and smiled. "Now, how did you two become friends so fast?" At which point, Naruto knew he'd be in deep trouble for getting into a fight. "Well...I, uh..." Sakura explained to Kushina about how Naruto saved her from Hibachi. After she heard everything, Kushina looked down at her son with a stern look on her face. "Naruto Namikaze? What did I tell you about getting into a fight, young man?" Meanwhile, Naruto looked almost as if he was gonna start bawling. "It wasn't my fault! Honest, mom! It was that jerk, Hibachi who started it! I only was defending Sakura!" Yet Kushina just smiled and patted her son on the head, "I'm proud of you for sticking up for your friend like that, sweetheart. You're just like your dad."

At that moment, Sakura heard a voice call out for her, "Sakura! It's time to come home!" "Oh! I'll be right there mommy!" She then turned to Naruto and Kushina, "Miss Kushina? Is it okay if I can come over at times to play with Naruto?" The Hokage's wife smiled, "Of course, Sakura. I'm sure my son would enjoy it if you came over." Naruto waved goodbye to his newest friend, "Bye Sakura! See you later!" "Bye! It was nice meeting you, Naruto!" Naruto and Kushina then set out for their home. 'Minato's going to be so happy when he hears that Naruto made his first friend.' Yet Kushina knew that the rest of the village would probably not accept Naruto because of the fox spirit sealed within him. The Namikaze residence looked like an Edo period style mansion, complete with a stone garden, koi pond and foot bridge, surrounded by a stone wall.

Naruto and Kushina let their sandals off near the front door and entered. Before Naruto could get off to reading manga, Kushina smiled at him, "Oh, Naruto you'll be happy to know that your cousin has just arrived here from the Land of Iron." "My cousin?" Kushina nodded and walked over to a sliding door, "You ready to meet him?" A voice replied to her, "Yeah Auntie Kushina. I'm ready." She then slid open the door, revealing a girl who seemed to be a year younger than Naruto. she had red hair like Kushina, which she had tied in a ponytail, she was wearing a kimono and hakama complete with a haori vest bearing the Uzumaki clan's crest on the back. she was also carrying a katana with her, and in a chest she carried was a suit of traditional samurai armor. "It is a pleasure to meet you, honorable cousin. I am Yukimura Uzumaki, lady Kushina's niece and a samurai from the Land of Iron." Naruto's eyes widened and a huge grin appeared on his face, "A samurai?! That is so awesome!" Kushina smiled, "Yukimura's going to be staying with us from now on, since we got a message from her grandpa, Kotaro saying that he's suffered from a disease which has left him bedridden and unable to tend to her." "Yes. So when I heard that there was another Uzumaki in the Land of Fire, I got the consent of Shogun Mifune to live with you as part of your family."

A few hours later, while Naruto was off reading manga, Yukimura off training in the backyard and Kushina busy preparing dinner, Minato finally came home. "Naruto, Kushina, Yukimura, I'm home." Naruto rushed down from his room and jumped onto his father, "Dad! I made a new friend today!" Minato was surprised, "You did? That's wonderful! Who is this new playmate of your's?" "Her name's Sakura Haruno." Naruto answered with a small blush on his face. "Haruno...Where have I heard that name before?" Kushina smiled at her husband, "I think that she's Kizashi's daughter, honey." "Oh yeah. Kizashi Haruno, he's one of the Leaf's finest shinobi, if not a bit intense with his jokes. So how did you run into her?" Naruto acted a bit sheepishly, "Well, actually I-" "A boy named Hibachi and his underlings were teasing Sakura about her forehead, so Naruto fought Hibachi to defend her." "What? You did that Naruto?" The blonde hung his head, "Yeah. Still, that kid was a big bully, I only gave him what he deserved." "Well, you did a good thing, protecting her Naruto." Yukimura entered the room and bowed before her uncle, "O great uncle, thank you once again for accepting me into your home." Minato just chuckled sheepishly, "I appreciate it, Yukimura, but you can drop the formalities. After all, you're part of the family now." Yukimura blushed realizing she just embarrassed herself in front of her family. "Oh! I'm really sorry hono- I mean, Uncle Minato. I'm still trying to adapt to life here in the hidden leaf village."

After they finished dinner, Naruto turned to Yukimura, "So, cousin, what's it like in the Land of Iron and being a samurai?" Yukimura smiled at her blonde haired cousin, "Well, it's really cold there, and it snows most of the time and the country's military is made of Samurai instead of Shinobi like in the other parts of the world. Unlike in the other lands, where the country is ruled by a Daimyo, the Land of Iron is ruled in a way that's similar to the hidden ninja villages. Just like the kage are the greatest of all shinobi in each land, the Land of Iron is ruled by the greatest of all samurai, known as the Shogun. Currently Shogun Mifune holds that title. Being a samurai is pretty intense because you have to fight with an array of weapons, but we mainly use swords, and some samurai even ride on horseback armed with the Naginata, a staff weapon with the blade of a sword on the end." Naruto smiled as he learned all about what Yukimura's old home was like before she came to the Hidden Leaf Village. It had turned out to be a great day for Naruto. He met his first friend, as well as he learned that his cousin was a samurai. He couldn't wait for the day he would attend Academy for the first time.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The first day at Ninja Academy and new friends.

Two days later...

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"Naruto! Yukimura! Get up or you'll both be late for orientation at the Academy!" Kushina shouted. It was Monday, and that meant that Naruto would start becoming a ninja soon. As for Yukimura, she wanted to learn some ninjutsu so that she could incorporate it with her kenjutsu training. Immediately both of them rushed down stairs and towards the kitchen. Naruto smiled,"Morning mom!" Yukimura waved and yawned,"Hi Aunt Kushina!" Kushina smiled at them, "Well good morning to the both of you, too." Naruto began scarfing down his rice, while Yukimura started with her salmon. Naruto then asked his mother,"Huh? Where's dad? Is he at work already?" Kushina replied, "No, Naruto. He's already at the Academy so he can greet the new students." Yukimura inquired, "Naruto? Since this is also my first day around the village, could I sit next to you in class?" Naruto gave her the thumbs up,"Sure! Anything for a member of the family. Believe it!" Yet Naruto was also thinking about a certain pink haired girl he met 3 days ago. Kushina reminded her son, "Naruto Namikaze! Hurry up or you'll miss your father's orientation! That goes double for you, Yukimura!" The two of them wolfed down their breakfast without choking, then rushed off to get their zori sandals on.

With Kushina tagging along to accompany them, Naruto and Yukimura reached the academy on time and not a moment too late. Minato smiled at his son and niece. "Alright kids, welcome to your first day at the Academy! Here is where you will learn to become full fledged genin over the course of 6 years. You will learn how to use basic ninjutsu and genjutsu, as well as different weapons that a ninja must utilize in battle. You will also form bonds between your classmates and learn to work together as a team to overcome the trials that lay ahead for you in the future. As hokage of this village, I wish you good luck." He then patted Naruto on the head, "I know you'll do your best, Naruto. Same as you , Yukimura." The two of them smiled back at him and Kushina hugged them both before she and her husband left the room, "I'll pick you both up after class lets out. Have a good time, you two." Then Naruto spotted someone, it was Sakura, the girl he rescued in the park, she now sported a red ribbon that showed her forehead. Immediately Naruto grabbed Yukimura by the hand and rushed over to her, "Hey! Sakura, it's good to see ya!"

Sakura turned and spotted the boy who saved her, "Hey Naruto! I'm happy to see you too!" Naruto finally slowed down and gave her a high five. "Wow, Sakura where'd you get the ribbon? You look like a totally new person." Sakura blushed a bit and giggled at Naruto's compliment, "Thanks Naruto. Ino gave it to me." Naruto looked up at the desk behind them, and saw a young girl with blonde hair and light blue eyes wave at them, "So you're Naruto. Sakura told me about how you helped her a few days ago. My name's Ino Yamanaka." Naruto smiled at Ino, "Glad to hear it, Ino." Sakura smiled at the fact that she finally had new friends to help her out in her time of need. Then she noticed Yukimura. "Hey Naruto, who's she?" "Oh! That's my cousin from the Land of Iron. She's a samurai in training." Yukimura smiled and waved at both Sakura and Ino, "Nice to meet you two. I'm Yukimura Uzumaki." Ino waved back at her, while Sakura took a small bow before her, "Hi Yukimura, I'm Sakura Haruno."

Just then, A chunin entered the classroom with brown hair, tan skin and a scar running horizontally across the bridge of his nose and the the tips of his cheeks. He wore the typical Hidden leaf village ninja outfit and a flax jacket over it. "Good Morning. First, allow me to introduce myself! I'm Iruka Umino, and from here on out, I'll be your sensei. My favorite food is Ichiraku Ramen, my least favorite being mixed rice. My birthday is May 26, so I'm a Pisces, my hobbies include going on trips to hot springs." Iruka let the class then introduce started with that idiot Hibachi, who by now had a reputation for being a bully and a prankster, but now he feared Naruto. He seemed pretty confident though when making his introduction.

Then it went round the whole room until it eventually reached Naruto, Sakura and Yukimura. Sakura started off first, "I'm Sakura Haruno. I like playing in the park with my friends, Ino and Naruto, my hobbies include collecting flowers, and my dream is to become a great Kunoichi one day." Iruka smiled and nodded, "Good. How about you, young man?" Naruto had a big smile on his face, "Believe it! I'm Naruto Namikaze. I like instant Ramen in a cup, and I also really like Ichiraku Ramen. Though I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait for it to cook, as well as seeing my friends in harm's way. My hobbies include eating different types of ramen, and my greatest dream is to be the greatest Hokage, that way the villagers can finally look up to me just like they look up to my dad!" A lot of the students were shocked that the hokage's son was in their class. One Kiba Inuzuka commented, "No way! Is he serious?! That kid is Lord Hokage's son?" Though Naruto simply ignored him. Sakura smiled at her friend, "Naruto, I'm sure you're gonna make a great Hokage." Yukimura then rose from her seat, "My name is Yukimura Uzumaki, and I'm Naruto's cousin from the Land of Iron. I like onigiri and miso soup, I don't like seeing my cousin being made fun of or turned down, my hobbies include practicing different sword attacks and learning new jutsu, and my dream is to be the first Samurai of the hidden leaf village." Hibachi fell backwards in his seat and hit his head on the hard floor. 'That girl is that tough blonde's cousin?! I'm gonna be in so much trouble!' Meanwhile everybody laughed at Hibachi's antics. Naruto and Sakura thought, 'Serves you right!'

Iruka still smiled at Naruto. 'He's amazing. I know that he's the jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox that killed both my parents, but I'm starting to believe that he may actually succeed his father as Hokage some day.' It was there, that Yukimura noticed a boy with jet black hair and stone grey eyes. He almost seemed as if in battle he'd always come out on top. She thought, 'There's something peculiar about that boy. I'll have to keep a close eye out on him.' Meanwhile, Iruka began with a history lesson of the Hidden Leaf Village, starting with it's founding during the Era of warring states. "During the warring states era, in which different shinobi clans fought against one another, there were two great clans in the Land of Fire: The Senju clan, and the Uchiha clan. Their leaders were Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, they were the men who founded and built the hidden leaf village that we call home."

Yukimura found all this history interesting, to know about the founding of the village and the name of the First Hokage. Yet Naruto was confident, this was the stuff his father told him when he was a toddler as bedtime stories, of how Hashirama Senju first defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox and saved the village. Then there were also Jiraiya's tales of the Third Great Shinobi world war and how he fought in the land of rain alongside Hashirama's grand-daughter, Tsunade and their former partner, who was now a rouge ninja: Orochimaru.

Iruka then explained of how the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked the village, six years ago. "As you probably all have known, the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked this village on October the 10th. Nobody ever saw it coming, especially myself. I was around your age when the attack on the village happened, but fortunately, Naruto's father defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox and saved the village." That was when Naruto realized something, 'October 10th? Wait a minute, I was born on that night! So, my dad saved us all from that fox demon. Now I really wanna be the next Hokage!'


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Uchiha clan massacre and preparation for the finals

Later that day, Naruto, Sakura and Yukimura were all relieved to hear that Hibachi had finally learned his lesson and stopped bullying other students. Naruto had just stopped him again, this time from bullying a rather important member of the class, Hinata Hyuga: The heir of the Hyuga clan's main branch and cousin of Neji Hyuga. Once she learned that Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage, she began to admire him for being heroic, but Naruto simply replied, "I get it from my dad's side of the family, since he saved the village from the Nine-Tailed Fox."

Sakura smiled at her friends, "I can't believe that we just finished our first day of school!" Yukimura nodded, "I hope we get to practice with our weapons pretty soon." Naruto grinned, "Slow down there, cousin. I know you're eager, but don't go all out on Hibachi just yet." Sakura then giggled at Naruto, "Yeah. Naruto already had him scared pretty good when he saved me." The group then started to laugh at that memory.

Naruto and Yukimura saw Kushina approach and ran to her, both with their arms open. Kushina hugged her son and niece back and asked, "So, how was the Academy, you two?" Naruto smiled and answered, "It was great! Today we learned how dad defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox and saved the village on the night I was born!" Kushina's eyes widened, but she wasn't going to reveal to her son the truth just yet. Meanwhile, Sakura saw her mother approaching and ran up to her. Mebuki smiled as she hugged her daughter. "Sakura, did you have a good day at school?" Sakura nodded, "Yeah, mommy. Especially since I had Naruto and Yukimura beside me." Kushina noticed Mebuki and waved over to her, "Mebuki! Over here!"

Mebuki realized then that Naruto was Kushina Uzumaki's son. So she walked over with Sakura and sat down on the nearest bench. The two mothers began recalling of how their days at the Academy were like. While their children were amazed that their parents had known each other for so long.

That was when Yukimura noticed that boy with jet black hair again, but this time there was another one who looked older than him. She asked her aunt, "Aunt Kushina, who's that boy?" Kushina immediately recognized him, "Oh! That's Itachi Uchiha, a member in the ANBU black ops."

Naruto would never realize that Itachi's brother, Sasuke Uchiha would smile for the last time in the near future. Over the next few weeks, Yukimura began sparring with Itachi to improve both her anticipation reflexes and Itachi's swordsmanship skills. It had almost seemed that they were rivals, but their sparring sessions ended after Itachi fell out of favor with his father, Fugaku: The head of the Uchiha clan. After this, Fugaku began spending more time with Sasuke and even taught him how to use fire style: Fireball Jutsu, thus earning him a rite of passage as a man by Uchiha standards. Yet the young boy's world would soon come crashing down.

* * *

The next morning was tragic. It had been revealed that the entire Uchiha clan had been slaughtered by Itachi's hands, and that only Sasuke was spared. Word soon spread that Itachi had also become a rouge ninja and had joined up with a criminal organization known as the Akatsuki. Minato knew the group all too well, as that was the same group Hiruzen's former pupil, Orochimaru had once been affiliated with after he had been discovered creating forbidden jutsu by possesing other ninja's bodies.

Naruto and Yukimura heard about the event that day in class amongst the gossip of students. Sasuke was there too, but his mind was focused on the night before. Itachi had used his Tsukuyomi ability on his brother and traumatized him severely, finally telling him, "_Foolish little brother, you can't kill me. Your hate's not strong enough, you're not strong enough, your life's too precious to you. So run...That's right, run away and live with the shame. __Like me, you may be one of the few who can use the Mangekyo Sharingan...but there is a catch: Take the life of your best friend...You must kill him!_"

A lot of the students tried to cheer Sasuke back up to his old chipper self, but to no avail. The boy had been traumatized so much, that the only thing that was keeping him alive was to kill Itachi so that he could take out his revenge. Now that his brother joined the Akatsuki, Sasuke's hatred for Itachi and desire for vengeance only grew stronger. Naruto knew that this new desire for vengeance could send Sasuke going mad, and many of the villagers tried to do the best they could for him.

Yet what really mattered to Naruto, Sakura and Yukimura over the next 5 years was preparation for the genin exams, which would see them become fully fledged ninja. They had mastered all kinds of weaponry, from kunai and shuriken to swords and spears. That was when Yukimura could finally demonstrate her kenjutsu skills she had used while sparring with Itachi before he joined the Akatsuki. The class also went over basic jutsu, like the transformation jutsu. Although, Naruto managed to create a knock-off version of it which became his signature move: The sexy Jutsu. Yet, outside of the classroom, Minato taught Naruto more advanced material, one of which would come in handy on the genin exams.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The dark secret revealed...

6 years later

* * *

After all the preparation and studying, Naruto and his friends finally were about to take the genin exams. Naruto had now sported an orange jacket with matching pants as well as goggles that acted like his own leaf ninja headband. Yukimura was now the same age as Naruto and Sakura, and she had begun wearing parts of her armor. Finally, Sakura had begun wearing a red sleeveless quipao dress with green shorts, and she had also let her hair grow longer. Naruto had spent time training and studying with Sakura, that he started to gain feelings for her, as she did him.

Iruka sensei then entered the classroom and announced, "We will now start the final exam. When your name is called, please head over to the examination room. The final exam will be on: The Clone Jutsu." Hearing that made Naruto so miffed, '_Argh! That's my worst technique! Great, I'm never gonna pass!' _Yukimura patted her cousin on the back as her clone jutsu was average. When word that Sasuke had gotten one of the best scores of the class, most of the girls, including Ino started cheering for him. Sakura and Yukimura on the other hand just slouched.

After Naruto learned that Sakura and Yukimura had managed to pass, it was his turn to try and give it a go, even though it would probably mean he'd fail. As he entered the room before Iruka sensei and his peer, Mizuki sensei, he thought, _'Alright! Get it together, Naruto! You can do this, believe it!'_ At first he looked like he would actually perform the clone jutsu, but then he changes his hand sign into a crucifix and shouted, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" In a puff of smoke, more than 60 shadow clones filled the room, stunning Iruka. The chunin thought to himself, '_Naruto...Those aren't just illusions, they're solid clones! He's mastered an extremely advanced jutsu!'_

It was the jutsu that Minato had taught him prior to the genin exams. Then the clones dissappeared in the same manner they were made in. Iruka then told him to close his eyes for a moment. When he re opened them, he found Iruka sensei holding his goggles and smiling. "Congratulations! You graduate!" For the young boy, it was the happiest moment of his life. He had finally become a full fledged ninja. He then took a leaf ninja headband and ran towards Sakura and Yukimura with a big grin on his face, "Hey! I did it! I passed!"

Sakura and Yukimura looked at Naruto and hugged him tightly, while Hinata, who had also passed, looked on from behind a tree, '_Naruto, you managed to graduate after all, I'm glad._' The three friends all hoped to be within the same squad, and hopefully not get stuck with Sasuke. Naruto and Yukimura rushed home and rushed into the house. Kushina turned to notice them, and when she saw their new leaf headbands she hugged them both with tears of joy, "Oh my sweethearts. I'm so proud of you!" Yet she knew that when Minato came home, it meant that he would have to tell Naruto the truth about what happened 12 years ago.

Later that evening, Naruto and Minato had a father/son talk about what happened the night he was born. Minato talked about how the Nine-Tailed Fox's attack on the village and his birth were directly linked with one another and how he had to seal the dog within the body of a newborn baby. That's when it started making sense to Naruto. Why most villagers hated him, his whisker-like birth marks and why he was called a freak. By the end, he started crying, and shouting at his father, "Why?! Why would you seal the Nine-Tailed Fox inside your own son?! How could you put me through all that?! I was so lonely...until I met Sakura and the others." Then he hugged his father tightly, crying onto him. Minato hugged back and told him, "Forgive me. To let you suffer from the hatred of the villagers must've been terrible. I suppose it's little consolation for me to wear a fatherly face and apologize after putting you through all that, but I had to seal the fox within you Naruto, because I believe that you can master its power."

Suddenly a knocking came at the front door, "Lord Hokage! It's an emergency! The scroll of sealing has been stolen!" Minato was shocked, and summoned all Jonin towards the Hokage's office along with Naruto. On the way there, Naruto was instructed to go get Iruka sensei to join as well. As soon as he made it, Naruto started pounding on the door and shouting, "Iruka Sensei! Wake up!" Iruka opened the door and was shocked to see Naruto in front of him, "Naruto?! What are you doing here?! Do you even know what time it is?" Naruto replied, "Yeah! It's time for you to come to my dad's office, immediately! Somebody stole a sacred scroll!" That was when Iruka's eyes widened in disbelief, "Ya mean the scroll of sealing? No!"

As soon as the two joined up at the Hokage's mansion, one Jonin told Minato, "Lord Hokage! This isn't some kind of prank, this is a serious crime!" Another shouted, "That scroll contains secrets written down by the first Hokage, secrets known only to our village!" The last one said to him, "If it falls into the wrong hands, they could destroy our entire way of life!" Minato nodded in consent and gave out his orders, "Alright! Spread out and search the entire perimeter of the village!" They nodded in confirmation and split up, with Naruto and Yukimura under Iruka's leadership.

Eventually, after searching the village's merchant district, they checked the forest surrounding the village. Soon enough, Naruto was the first to find the scroll on the ground. Iruka followed down to where Naruto was, but then Iruka sensed danger approaching, and shoved Naruto out of the way before being hit by multiple kunai knives. Then a familiar voice told the chunin, "I see you've found my little hideaway." Iruka looked up and smirked at his attacker, "So that's the way it is, eh? I should've known!" It was Mizuki, and he was armed with two giant shuriken on his back.

He shouted, "Naruto! Give me the scroll, now!" Iruka, however, pulled a kunai out of his thigh and warned his student, "No, Naruto! Don't let Mizuki get his hands on the scroll! It contains forbidden jutsu...that could put this village in great danger!" Mizuki tried reassuring the boy, "Naruto, Iruka's trying to trick you because he wants the scroll for himself." To which, he shouted, "Stop lying, Mizuki!" Then Mizuki scoffed and told him, "Oh, I'll tell you who's really lying!" Iruka tried to stop his former partner, "No, Mizuki!"

Mizuki stated to Naruto, "They've been lying to you, your whole life, Naruto. Since the decree, 12 years ago." Naruto asked in confusion, "What decree?" Mizuki smiled and told him, "Iruka's trying to hide it from you, even now. He'd do anything to shut me up." Still wanting an answer, Naruto asked, "What is this decree, and how come my parents never told me about it?" Iruka then shouted at the top of his lungs, "DON'T TELL HIM! IT'S FORBIDDEN!" Yet Mizuki ignored Iruka and revealed to Naruto, "The decree is, that no one can tell you the Nine-Tailed Fox is inside YOU!"

Naruto glared at Mizuki with pure rage in his eyes, as he already knew about his link to the beast. Mizuki continued, "The fox spirit that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village is inside your body! You are the Nine-Tailed Fox!" Angered by Mizuki's defience for the decree, Iruka yelled at him to stop, but to no avail. Mizuki explained, "They've all been sneaking around, hiding things from you your whole life. Didn't you see the way they treated you? Like dirt! Like they hated you for just being alive!"

Before Mizuki could go on with his exagerating, Naruto's eyes turned scarlet red, resembling the eyes of the fox spirit. He then stated to Mizuki in a low grim tone, "I know. I know because my dad just told me! So I don't care what you tell me, but if you EVER lay a hand on my sensei or my family...I'LL KILL YOU!"

Mizuki jumped down from out of the tree and approached Naruto, "Such big words. I can take you with a single blow!" Yet Naruto showed no sign of backing down and made the same hand sign that made him pass the genin exams, telling the traitor, "Take your best shot, fool. I'll give it back to you a thousand fold!" Mizuki then ran at Naruto and shouted, "Let's see you try! Show me what you can do, Nine-Tailed Fox!" Once again, Naruto shouted, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Just like before, over 60 clones of Naruto appeared and encircled Mizuki. By the time Minato and Jiraiya got to the scene with Yukimura, they were both stunned and proud. Mizuki, on the other hand, was scared out of his witts, as the Naruto clones smiled and told him, "If you're not coming," "Then we're gonna come after you!" Mizuki looked in fear and screamed in horror as he was beaten to a bloody pulp by Naruto's clones.

By the time the sun rose, Naruto was rubbing the back of his head in front of Mizuki's unconcious body, his face all swollen and his right sleeve ripped at the forearm. Kushina arrived at that moment in her kunoichi garb and her hair in a ponytail, "Naruto!" She then gasped in surprise seeing that her son beat a Chunin like Mizuki senseless. She then hugged her son tightly while Jiraiya, Yukimura and Minato landed on the ground.

Jiraiya applauded at his godson, "Well, well! That was quite a show you put on back there." Naruto chuckled at his godfather, "Sorry about that, I kinda got carried away." Kushina then told him, "Naruto, my baby, I was so worried about you." To which he smiled back, "Aw, mom. I'm the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, now. Mizuki was just all talk." Just then, Yukimura noticed Mizuki's right forearm, as there was a tattoo on it she had never seen before, "Hey, Uncle Minato? Why does a Chunin like Mizuki have a tattoo?" Minato shrugged, but Jiraiya squatted down and examined the so called tattoo. Instantly he sensed that it wasn't ink, but a chakra mark left by his former comrade: Orochimaru.

* * *

Jiraiya then remembered how he pursued Orochimaru a few years before Naruto's birth. He asked his old partner, "Why? Why are you doing this? You and I have been comrades since childhood, together we are part of the 3 legendary sannin." Yet Orochimaru laughed and mocked, "What a sentimental fool you are, Jiraiya. You always were blind to reality. You couldn't see, couldn't imagine what I was really doing all along." Yet Jiraiya still tried to tell him, "Its not too late to turn back now, Orochimaru! Don't do this!" Still refusing to heed Jiraiya's words, the snake-like ninja laughed and ran straight at him, "How did you get to be such a fool?!"

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the village, the Jonin were all worried that the scroll was still missing, but then Hiruzen showed up in his Hokage garb and chuckled, "You needn't worry. The scroll has been retrieved, Naruto stopped the culprit before he could escape." It was later revealed by Mizuki's fiance, Tsubaki that Mizuki had an encounter with Orochimaru a few years ago, and he stole the scroll of sealing to give it fo him as an offering. With that in mind, Jiraiya and Hiruzen agreed that Mizuki was to be stripped of his rank, imprisoned and branded forever as a rouge Ninja for consorting with Orochimaru. Yet Naruto's actions were known throughout the village and as the morning sun rose in the sky, a new day and new challenges would await him.


	6. Chapter 5

(Before continuing on, yes this chapter is named after the episode of the same name in the anime.)

Chapter 5: My name is Konohamaru!

Naruto was at the Hokage's mansion where he was to go over with his father, and old man Hiruzen about his ninja profile photo. Naruto chuckled, "At first, I didn't know what I would go for. It took me a whole hour to decide how I should present myself, but finally I got it. Like an art project on my face, only cooler." Minato smiled nervously, "Er….Wow that's very interesting, Naruto." Yet Hiruzen stated bluntly, "Take it again." Naruto was shocked at this, "No way!" The third Hokage explained, "We can't accept this photo." Yet Naruto rebuked, "Yeah? Well I'm not doing it again!"

With tensions rising between Naruto and Hiruzen, Minato and Yukimura thought it best to try and intervene. That was when Naruto made the familiar hand sign and shouted, "Transform!" Yukimura knew what jutsu he just used, "Uncle Minato, you better not look at this." Minato nodded and closed his eyes. Naruto had transformed into a full grown naked female version of himself with pig tails and giggled, "Pretty please, Lord Third Hokage?~" Hiruzen was at first surprised, but a stream of blood gushed from his nose as he fell backwards in his chair onto the floor, mouth gaping.

After recovering and wiping his nose from the blood, Hiruzen demanded, "That's the Sexy Jutsu, you say? Very tricky, much too tricky, don't do it again!" Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously, then Hiruzen asked him, "And where is your headband, Naruto? You're supposed to be wearing it now that you're a ninja." Naruto told him, "Oh, I'm not gonna wear it until orientation. I don't wanna mess it up." Hiruzen sighed, "So, you want your headband nice, but your photo which makes you look like a complete fool. Look at this picture, you can't even tell who it is!" Naruto angrily replied, "Well fine! How am I supposed to know all this complicated stuff in the first place?!" Minato just laughed nervously, "Now, now, Naruto. I'm sure Hiruzen has his reasons for this."

Suddenly, Yukimura gripped her sword and sensed something dangerous. In an instant, a small boy with brown hair, armed with a shuriken came running towards Minato shouting, "Yellow Flash, I challenge you! I'm going to defeat you and become the 5th Hokage!" Before he could release his metal star, the lad tripped on his feet and fell flat on his face. He then curled up and covered his face with his hands. Minato sighed in relief, but Hiruzen just gripped his hat and thought, 'My grandson, another headache.'

Then, a Jonin with sunglasses and a bandana rushed in and assessed the situation. Meanwhile the boy got up off the floor and rubbed his head, "Something tripped me!" The Jonin saw the boy and asked him, "A-are you alright, honorable grandson? And by the way, there's nothing here for you to trip on, it's pretty flat." Yukimura loosened the grip on her sword, while Naruto thought, 'Ugh…Who is this shrimp?' The Jonin saw Naruto and jumped back a little, thinking to himself, 'It's that kid! Hmmph, the Nine-Tailed Fox, of course! He's the worst kind of troublemaker.'

The boy approached Naruto and demandingly asked him, "Alright! You're the one who tripped me, aren't ya?!" Naruto then grabbed the boy by the front of his shirt and told him, "You tripped over your own feet, dork!" Then that Jonin shouted to Naruto, "Hey you, take your hands off him right now! He's the honorable grandson of the honorable Third Hokage!" Naruto paused with his fist ready to strike if needed, while the boy thought, 'That stopped him, just like all the rest. Ha! Now that he knows who I am, he won't dare lay a finger on me.'

He then tauntingly asked his attacker, "What's the matter, huh?! I thought you were gonna hit me, tough guy, afraid because the Third Hokage is my grandfather?!" Naruto shouted to him, "I don't care if he's your grandmother, because my dad's the Fourth Hokage!" Then he punched the grandson shouting, "So believe it!" As he fell to the ground, the boy thought, 'This guy's different…..' then fell face first again onto the floor. The Jonin's jaw dropped while Minato and Yukimura escorted Naruto outside the room, only to find an angry Kushina waiting for her son. She then asked demandingly of her son, "Naruto Namikaze?! Did you just use Sexy Jutsu on old man Hiruzen?!" Naruto suddenly turned pale and started cowering. "No….Mom….Please not that, anything but that!" Kushina bopped her son on the head and shouted at him, "THAT'S IT! NO ICHIRAKU RAMEN FOR A WEEK, YOUNG MAN!" Naruto could be heard shouting in pain as Kushina dragged him back home by the ear.

Meanwhile, the Jonin, named Ebisu, informed the young Sarutobi, "Listen carefully, you are the honorable grandson of the honorable Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. You cannot let riffraff like this draw you into a fight, Even if he happens to be the Fourth Hokage's son! You see, he's far beneath you, you mustn't stoop to his level. As your elite ninja mentor, I am never wrong which means I am always right. I'm far above the other mentors, so heed my every word. Your goal is to become the next Hokage and I can teach you the best way to do it. Indeed, with my elite knowledge and skills I can take you right to the top, but you must always stay close to me. You understand me, right honorable grandson?"

Yet when Ebisu turned to look at the boy, he vanished again. Horrified, he shouted, "Where'd he go now?!" Hiruzen told him bluntly, "I think he went off, trying to find Naruto, but I have no idea where they're going." Ebisu turned to Hiruzen in shock, "He's with Naruto?! That's a disaster!" Immediately he ran out the door shouting, "HONORABLE GRANDSON!" After which, Hiruzen began to think about what his grandson was up to, '_How did he grow up to be like that? My grandson is pretty determined, that was his 1st ambush on Minato today, and if he went with following Naruto, he's sure to get even worse. No, Naruto wouldn't teach him anything really bad. Would he?'_

Bummed out by having no Ichiraku Ramen for a whole week, Naruto decided to get some exercise and go for a walk around the village. Little did he know, that Hiruzen's little grandson was following him, intrigued by his Sexy Jutsu that he developed off of the transformation jutsu. When Naruto suspected that something seemed fishy and turned around, the boy would disguise himself as part of the path, at first. This trick worked, as Naruto would suspect it to be his imagination and carry on. Yet when he finally realized someone was following him, he turned around and shouted, "I know that you're following me, so just give it up!" Quickly the boy tried disguising himself as part of a wooden wall, but he got the paterns mixed up allowing Naruto to determine his location. "That's so obvious, its pathetic." He stated. That was when the boy chuckled and revealed himself, "Saw through my disguise, huh? The rumors about you are true, you're good!"

He then approached the newly fledged genin and told him, "Alright! I'll be your apprentice and you'll be my trainer." Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion. The boy continued, "And afterwards, you gotta show me how to do that sexy jutsu that you pulled on grammpa Hiruzen!" Yet Naruto crossed his arms in disbelief and turned to his side, "This is some kinda joke, isn't it? Listen kid, I'm ju-" The young boy cut him off, "No! I need a new trainer! Please boss?" Naruto was a bit interested after the child called him 'boss', so he eventually gave in afterwards. Naruto tried to teach Hiruzen's grandson how to control his chakra in order to perform jutsu, but the kid happened to have a scroll on him which explained how jutsu worked, much to Naruto's chagrin.

The boy then tried transforming into a woman, but the result was pretty apalling. After several trial and efforts, and after Naruto got many a beating for being reckless, he decided to teach the kid how to do the sexy jutsu. The first time was the same as before, only without the kimono and shorter hair. Naruto scolded him, "No go! You gotta make her skinnier!" Which the boy tried incorperating, but the form was as thin as a twig. Naruto told him, "No! I meant curvier!" So after several other attempts, the boy finally got it right.

Meanwhile, Ebisu was looking for his pupil from the Hokage mountain. He thought out, '_Naruto! What has he done with the honorable grandson?!'_ He then asked himself, "What's his evil plan? Where did they run off to?" Ebisu calmed himself down as he reminded himself, _'I am a Jonin, the highest rank ninja, and mentor for future Hokages. Any parasite that clutches onto my student will be squashed!' _ He then rushed off to find the young boy.

In the park, Naruto and Hiruzen's grandson decided to take a break from training. He then asked, "So, what's up with this obsession of trying to be better than your grandfather? I mean, he only acts in for when my dad can't make it." The boy then revealed his reasons, "My grandfather named me Konohamaru. After the ancient name for the village, so it should be easy to remember, but nobody calls me by that name. Not one person in the whole village, that's because when they look at me, all they see is the honorable grandson of the Third Hokage. Nobody knows who I am. I can't stand it anymore, its like I'm invisible, like I'm not even there. I hate that! That's why I gotta become a Hokage now so that people will know who I am!"

Naruto realized that this kid was going through the opposite of what he went through 6 years earlier. Though that was because he was the Jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox which nearly destroyed the village. Naruto just told Konohamaru, "Get real! You really think people are gonna accept a shrimp like you for a Hokage? A kid can't just become a Hokage overnight." Konohamaru got miffed by this reality and got up in disbelief. Naruto continued, "It's not that simple. You keep saying, 'Hokage, Hokage.' To really become a Hokage, you know what you'll have to do?" Konohamaru looked at Naruto in question, at which point his pupils became catlike, but still retained their blue color, as he grinned, "You're gonna have to defeat me in battle!"

Atop the roof of the Hokage's office, Minato and Kushina grew exceedingly worried about their son. Kushina looked at her husband and asked him, "Honey? Do you think that some of the villagers kidnapped our son?" Minato placed his arm on his wife and reassured her, "I'm sure Naruto's fine, Kushina. If any of the other villagers haven't seen him, we'll search the village for him. He'll be okay since he knows Shadow Clone Jutsu now." Just then, Iruka teleported to the two of them, "Lord Hokage! Lady Kushina! I've been looking for you two."Minato turned to Iruka, who was now bandaged up from the encounter with Mizuki the previous night.

"Oh! Iruka, what brings you here?" Kushina then asked, "Have you seen where Naruto ran off to? He's been missing all day!" Iruka shook his head, "Actually, I was wondering if he resubmitted his ninja ID photo. You know I gave him a really big lecture at Ichiraku's earlier this afternoon, but he's still so happy that he's a genin, a ninja trainee. That things will change and people will stop hating him now." Kushina then left, and Minato asked, "Kushina, where are you going?" She replied, "To find our son before he gets killed." She then began leaping from rooftop to rooftop to look for Naruto. Minato then turned and looked up at his own portrait in the Hokage monument. "Well, that's certainly a good thing, but Hiruzen doesn't share my optimism, he thinks that Naruto may only be further denied because he's a jinchuriki, like his mother before him."

Back at the park, Ebisu had finally caught up to Naruto and Konohamaru. He exclaimed, "I've finally found you!" Then sneered at Naruto before leaping onto the ground and making his way toward Konohamaru. He told the young boy, "So, honorable grandson, time to come home." Yet Konohamaru shouted, "No way! I'm learning how I can beat my grammpa and Naruto's dad so that I can become Hokage! Now leave me alone!" Ebisu retorted this and explained, "A Hokage is more than just a fighter, he must know virtue, honor, wisdom and he must be skilled in over a thousand jutsu. You don't even know one jutsu." That's when Konohamaru made a hand sign and shouted, "TRANSFORM!" In a puff of smoke, Ebisu saw in the place of Konohamaru, the sexy jutsu version of him asking the Jonin, "Hi there! Like my jutsu?~" Yet Ebisu just froze there with his jaw dropped. Konohamaru reverted back to his original form, "Hey! He's not defeated!"

Mortified, Ebisu demanded, "Wha-wha-WHAT KIND OF SCANDALOUS TECHNIQUE IS THAT?! Such tasteless guarentee can never influence me, I am far above it!" He tried tugging on Konohamaru's scarf, trying to get him to come back with him. He pleaded, "Honorable grandson, stop this act! RIGHT NOW! Naruto's turning you into a delinquint! Only my superior teachings can put you on the fast track to becoming a Hokage!" Resisting, Konohamaru told him, "Just leave me alone!" Then, Naruto shouted, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Instantly multiple shadow clones of Naruto appeared, amazing Konohamaru to the point of excitement as he stated, "WHOA! This is...unreal!" Yet Ebisu grinned with confidence, "I'm not impressed. I am a Jonin, an elite ninja warrior. I'm not some lightweight like Mizuki. Watch how a real ninja defeats an upstart." It was then that Kushina arrived behind a tree and looked in horror as her son would be crushed. '_Oh no! I can't watch!'_

Ebisu got into a combat stance as soon as he was in the center of the clones. Which was when Naruto and all his shadow clones shouted, "TRANSFORM!" Thus taking on a new form of the Sexy Jutsu. Hearing the giggling and seductive tone of voices, Kushina was surprised by her son pulling off a stunt so risque as this. As for Ebisu, his weakness was finally exposed as a torrent of blood sent him flying into the air and landed on the ground with his jaw twitching. Naruto then reverted back to his normal self and smiled, "Gotcha! With my Harem Jutsu!" Hiruzen, who saw the whole ordeal through a crystal ball commented, "He's combined shadow cloning with his signature move: The Sexy Jutsu." He gripped his hat and thought to himself, '_What a foolish ninja technique! And he could probably get me with it, too.'_

As the sun started to set in the west, Konohamaru complained about how he couldn't beat Ebisu and just messed up with trying to defeat him, wanting to know why he couldn't do it. Naruto told him, "You really think it's that easy? To really be a hokage, you have to be the greatest of all ninjas, you really have to proove yourself so that everyone believes in you. Look at me! I'm the Fourth Hokage's son, but I've been ignored, turned down and even beaten up at times, but after all that, I found a group of people who believe in me, and to find them I had to suffer a lot. So you better start getting ready for lots of sweat, blood and tears, while learning to be a ninja. By the way, there is no easy way to becoming Hokage. Believe it."

Then Konohamaru remembered what Naruto said to him earlier and scoffed him off, "Ha! Who are you to lecture me like that. That does it, I'm not gonna be your apprentice anymore. From now on...we're rivals." Naruto smiled at him and told him, "Well I can't be your trainer anyway, because tomorrow I start my advanced ninja studies, but I accept your challenge and some time in the future, we'll fight for the title of Hokage...Konohamaru."

When he turned around Kushina made her way out of the bushes towards him and demanded, "Naruto Namikaze?! Where HAVE you been?!" She then hugged her son and tears flowed down her face, "Oh, my baby. You made me worried sick about what happened to you." Naruto felt his heart grow heavy, but he hugged his mother back, "Oh gosh. I'm so so sorry, mom. I didn't mean to make you worried, just that-" She nodded, "I saw the whole thing. Even if you mess up at times, remember that I'll always love you." She then grabbed his hand, "Now, lets go back to the house, okay? Tomorrow's the big day for you." Naruto smiled, "Yeah, that's right! I can't be tired for my orientation at the Academy tomorrow." He waved goodbye to Konohamaru as he left back home to prepare for the biggest day of his life as he knew it.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The big day comes, the formation of Squad 7

The following Monday, Naruto and Yukimura woke up earlier than they normally did, and were more eager to head to the Academy than they were in the past. In fact, it was perfectly normal around this time of year for new genin in the Leaf village to act this way, because today was the day they would be assigned into their new squads. Kushina was perfectly happy knowing that her son and niece would be taking on missions for the first time, but she was also worried about them, as these missions also meant a matter of life or death, and if Naruto ever got into any trouble with a ninja who knew about seals, then the Nine Tailed fox could be let loose again. For now though, she only thought of how happy those two looked.

After they had finished breakfast and gotten ready, the two genin donned their new leaf ninja headbands and made it towards the Academy with Kushina in tow. She told Naruto and Yukimura, "I'm so proud of the both of you for passing the exam." Naruto smiled at his mother, "Well, it wasn't easy, but I managed to pull it off." Yukimura looked up at her aunt, "If we ever run into a rouge ninja, I'll show them the true power of how the samurai fight." Kushina laughed at this, "I'm sure that the both of you will do just fine."

Meanwhile at the Haruno residence, Sakura had just adorned her new headband and smiled at herself in the mirror. From the first floor, Mebuki asked her, "Sakura! Isn't it time for you to get going?" The pink haired kunoichi replied with a bit of anger in her voice, "I know, I'm on my way out now! Her inner self then thought, '_Cha! How long are you gonna keep treating me like this, mom?! I'm not a little kid anymore!'_ She then made her way towards the academy and thought to herself, '_That's right. I'm no longer a little girl. I'm Sakura Haruno, kunoichi in training._' Just then, Ino made her way out of the Yamanaka flowershop and waved hi to Sakura, "Morning Sakura!" She then replied, "Good morning, Ino." The two girls then talked about which squad they were hoping to be in. Sakura said that she wanted to be partnered up with Naruto for certain, as he was her first friend. While Ino had explained how she wanted to be in Sasuke's squad. That's when Sakura thought, '_Oh, Ino. Why did you have to end up like this?_'

At the Academy, Naruto and Yukimura had big grins on their faces. Sakura and Ino walked in at that moment, and much to Ino's chagrin, someone had already claimed a seat next to Sasuke, a girl named Ryoko Hattori, who was also sitting with Hibachi. Turns out he just passed by a hair on the genin exam. Dissmayed by this loss, Ino had no choice but to sit with Shikamaru. Sakura then happily sat between Naruto and Yukimura, and the three then talked about what happened over the weekend before the orientation started.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, the Jonin were assembled to look over their selected groups, among them was Minato's former student, Kakashi Hatake, and one of Hiruzen Sarutobi's sons, Asuma. Kakashi looked down at his new genin, with Sasuke as one of them. "Most promising new student, Sasuke Uchiha. Is that him sensei?" Minato replied, "Yes. He's different from how Obito acted." Another Jonin, Kurenai Yuhei couldn't help but feel sympathetic for the boy. "I can't believe he's the only survivor left from the Uchiha clan massacre." Minato nodded in confirmation.

Then another female Jonin looked over Naruto's profile and seemed confident, "Naruto Namikaze, huh?" Minato and Kushina smiled at her with confidence. Kushina told her,"I think that our son's the perfect fit for you, right?" She nodded with great pride, "Yes, Lady Kushina. I won't let you down on this one." Minato chuckled, "Don't worry, my wife and I have faith in you."

Iruka sensei made his final announcement. "As of today you are all ninjas. Together you have faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only genin, first level ninjas. All the genin will be grouped into 3 man squads. Each squad will be led by a jonin, an elite ninja." Naruto, Sakura and Ino hoped they got into the squads they wanted. Iruka continued, "We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities. So that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads."

The first five squads were then announced, but then came the next 5. "Next! Squad 6: Hibachi Kaen, Ryoko Hattori….and Sasuke Uchiha." Ryoko jumped for joy as she learned that Sasuke would be in her squad, while most of the other girls either glared at her or teared up, knowing that she'd be left with the most popular guy in class. "Next! Squad 7: Naruto Namikaze, Sakura Haruno, and Yukimura Uzumaki." The three of them were so happy, "Yes! We're all in the same squad!" Yukimura exclaimed.

Hinata looked on, smiling that Naruto was so happy. _Naruto, do your best…'_ Iruka then called out, "Next! Squad 8: Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame." Ino meanwhile was furious at Ryoko for being partnered with Sasuke. "How did she get in his group?! That little…" Shikamaru just sighed, "I don't get it, what do ya see in a guy like that? He's not so special." Ino turned to her classmate, "You are so beyond clueless, Shikamaru. Don't you get it?" The boy just stated bluntly, "No, I don't get it, because I'm not a girl!" The blonde sighed at him, "You are so full of yourself. Jealousy's a terrible thing; I'd hate to be on your squad."

At which point Iruka announced, "Now squad 10: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara." When Ino heard this she gasped and Shikamaru chuckled, "Ha! Did you say something about hating to be on my squad?" Iruka then announced the final member, "And….Choji Akimichi!" Choji just didn't seem to mind that, as he was stuffing his face full with potato chips. Ino, on the other hand, was NOT happy at all. She thought, '_Ah! Not food boy, too! I'm having such a bad day!' _Iruka then looked up the students, "That's all for the squads! Remember to head to your assigned destinations after lunch to meet with your Jonin instructors. Until then, class dismissed."

As they left their old classroom, the new genin of squad 7 just started cracking up, at the fact that Hibachi got stuck in the same group as Sasuke. "Oh, Hibachi's gonna be in for one hell of a nightmare!" laughed Naruto. Sakura giggled, "I heard they matched them up together because Hibachi got the worst score on the genin exams while you and Sasuke got the highest ones." Naruto then blushed, "Thanks Sakura. I really hope that our squad leader is someone cool." Yukimura started digging into her bento, "For me, as long as they have great fighting potential and leadership skills, I'm fine with them."

Soon, Naruto spotted Sasuke near a tree, and decided to attack him as a way of saying farewell. Sakura and Yukimura tried to stop him but it was too late. Naruto first tried coming at him with shadow clones, only for them to be burned away by Sasuke's fireball jutsu. Naruto then made the same crucifix handsign and Sasuke thought, 'He's gonna be using more shadow clones? He is such a loser.' Then Naruto switched hand signs and shouted, "Sexy Jutsu!" Fortunately for Sakura, Yukimura explained the details of her cousin's sexy jutsu. Naruto then turned into a beautiful female version of himself in an orange bikini letting her hair down. As Sasuke just stood there with no emotion on his face, Naruto made her move and was about to punch him. Little did he know that he had fallen into a trap as Sasuke pulled a string which sent a shuriken landing in his rear. Naruto reverted back and ran around in circles in pain, "O-o-ouch! It hurts!" Yukimura and Sakura just laughed as the so called attack was somewhat entertaining to them.

Meanwhile, the members of squad 10, or the new Ino-Shika-Cho were going over how things were going to be run when they were left on their own. Ino told her other two team mates, "Alright you guys. If we're going to be in the same team, you two are going to have to follow my lead. That's the only way it'll work." Shikamaru nodded and just kept eating, "Yeah, yeah." He then thought to himself, '_That's the only way it'll work, because she throws a fit if things don't go her way.' _Choji then joked, "Why don't ya lead us to some barbecue, Ino?" She then facepalmed, "Urgh! This is hopeless!"

After an hour or so, it was time for everyone squad to meet their respected Jonin leaders, all of the destinations for the different squads were found in different classrooms in the Academy. Sqad 7 was assigned to a larger classroom than their old one was. Naruto blurted out, "I wonder which Jonin Hibachi was assigned with?" Yukimura looked at the window and immediately a large black ball flew into the room shattering the glass. As it unfurled, a pair of legs could be seen and two kunai were embeded into the ceiling. Naruto looked in shock and asked, "Is that...Our new sensei?"

As the black cloth was lifted, the woman who got Minato and Kushina's approval back in the office stood before the three of them. She had medium length violet hair tied up, was wearing a skin tight fishnet body suit that cut off at her biceps and at the ends of her thighs. She wore on top of that an orange miniskirt and a tan trenchcoat, as well as greaves on her lower legs and a small pendant around her neck, along with the leaf ninja headband tied around her forehead. She exclaimed, "Heads up, Squad 7, this is no time to celebrate graduating!" She then stood tall and firm before her new genin and introduced herself, "I'll be your Jonin instructor: Anko Mitarashi!"

Anko had a certain grin on her face that would make Konohamaru tremble and cower in fear in her presence. Yet Naruto was arrogant enough to meet her expectations, "Alright, lady. I'm not afraid of you, I'm Naruto Namikaze, son of the Fourth Hoka-" Before he could finish, Anko threw a shuriken right past his face and landed onto the wall behind him. She then approached him and ruffled his hair, "Relax, hot shot! your folks already told me about ya, I know what to expect from both you and your cousin." Minato then teleported behind the tarp and chuckled, "Uh, Anko? That was a really cool introduction you did, but you kinda jumped the gun." Hearing this made Anko lose all her previous enthusiasm.

Sakura looked in surprise at Anko and thought, '_That's our sensei? She reminds me a lot of Naruto. Maybe there was a reason we were assigned with her.'_ Anko regained her confidence, and smiled at her new students, "Alright kids, we'll start off with self introductions. Like I said, I'm Anko Mitarashi. I like dango, though I hate wimpy genin who can hardly use any jutsu. My hobbies include conducting tea ceremonies, and being proctor for the second half of the Chunin Exams. Now, what about you three?"

Naruto went first, "Believe it! I'm Naruto Namikaze. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka Sensei got me at Ichiraku's yesterday. Though I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait before eating it, as well as anyone hurting those I hold close. My hobbies include eating different types of ramen, and my dream in life is, to be the greatest Hokage! Then the villagers can stop hating me and look up to me as somebody important!."

Anko just smiled and said, "Just like your father. Alright, next!" Sakura smiled and said, "I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like, I mean, the person I like is..." She looked at Naruto and giggled, and Naruto just smiled back at her. She continued, "My hobbies include trivias and memorization, but I hate being made fun of because of my forehead, as for my dreams..." She looked at Naruto again and gave a small "Kya!" Naruto then thought, 'I sure hope that means we'll be dating in a few years' Anko thought, 'Looks like those two are quite the lovebirds' She then indicated to Yukimura that it was her turn.

Yukimura stood tall and said, "My name is Yukimura Uzumaki. I enjoy tea ceremonies and flower arrangements, as well as learning new ninjutsu. I dislike samurai who have strayed away from the path of Bushido, they are scum and deserve to be punished. My hobbies include practicing with different types of weapons that we samurai are given, and my dream is to become the first samurai of the Hidden Leaf Village." Anko smiled and told her, "You and your cousin have determination. I like that."

As for Squad 6, they were in the same classroom they were in before, waiting for their sensei, Kakashi Hatake. When he finally entered, an eraser hit his head and Hibachi started cracking up. Ryoko tried to keep herself from giggling as best she could, while Sasuke thought, '_He fell for a prank as simple as that? Is this guy really a Jonin?_' Kakashi then picked up the eraser and told them, "Hmm. How can I put this? My first impression of this group...You're a bunch of idiots." This really bummed out Ryoko and Hibachi. They then met on the roof of another building. Kakashi told them, "Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves? One at a time." Ryoko asked, "What do ya mean?" Kakashi explained, "Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies. Things like that." Hibachi smirked, "If you're our sensei, then why don't you show us how ta do it?" Kakashi pointed to himself and said, "Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate...I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...Never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies."

After Hibachi and Ryoko introduced themselves, of which the latter left the former dumbstruck, Sasuke made his introduction. He said in a dark grim tone of voice, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything." Ryoko felt a bit shocked about her feelings for Sasuke, but the young Uchiha continued, "What I have is not a dream, because I WILL make it a reality. I'm going to destroy my clan, and destroy a certain someone." Although the others were scared of the thought he could come after them, Sasuke was talking obviously about killing his brother, Itachi so he could take out his revenge.

Kakashi commented, 'Good! You're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow, its a survival exercise." Hibachi and Ryoko were confused about what their sensei meant. He explained, "This is not like your previous training." When Hibachi asked what it would entail, Kakashi just started laughing in amusement, "If I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." He then explained anyway, "Out of the 27 graduates who just came here, only 9 will actually be accepted as genin. The other 18 will be weeded out, and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it pass/fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%." All of them except for Sasuke were mortified at this thought. Kakashi asked, "See? Didn't I tell you you wouldn't like it?" Hibachi then asked, "Then what was the genin exam for?!" Kakashi replied, "Oh that? That was just to select candidates who might become genin...or not. That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 AM, and bring your ninja gear." After the genin thought about what might happen the next day, Kakashi told them, "That's it, you're dismissed. Oh, and...Tomorrow, you'd better skip breakfast, or you'll puke." This only further lowered Hibachi and Ryoko's enthusiasm, but it only made Sasuke even more determined.

Meanwhile Squad 10's Jonin, Asuma made himself known after a quick smoke from his cigarette and after Shikamaru, Ino and Choji went through a small coughing fit. He told them, "Oh! I'm sorry about that. I'm Asuma Sarutobi and starting now, I'm the leader of squad 10. I warn ya, I'm strict so be prepared." They all just stared at their new sensei with tears forming up. Asuma then chuckled, "Now don't start cryin' already. So far, all I've done is barely even threaten you." Shikamaru pointed at the cigarette his sensei was smoking and explained, "It's the smoke! It's stinging our eyes!"

Later that evening, and back at home, Minato told Naruto and Yukimura that Kakashi was assigned to squad 6, Sasuke's squad. Of course this made Naruto laugh so hard, he started rolling onto his back, "They got stuck with Kakashi sensei?! Oh this is just too good!" Naruto knew firsthand that Kakashi was always late to anything. He and Yukimura were also fortunate to have learned that their sensei was also one of the proctors for the Chunin exams, knowing what she'd put them up against. The two prepared for the day they'd start their first mission as ninjas.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A Dangerous mission! Journey to the Land of Waves!

At the Mission assignment desk, Squad 7 had just finished their first mission, returning a pet cat, Tora to her rightful owner: Lady Shijimi, the wife of the Land of Fire's daimyo. Naruto had his face all scratched up while Sakura and Yukimura stared in wonder as the pudgy noblewoman cuddled the poor animal so much that it always had to run away. Konohamaru and Ebisu were also there, and Konohamaru muttered, "If that old windbag were MY owner, I'd probably run for the hills as well." Ebisu then whispered, "Quiet, Konohamaru!"

Naruto was miffed that they were being sent on D-ranked missions, Anko was also angry on the inside. Finally he stated, "Argh! I wanna go aon a REAL mission! Something challenging and exciting! Not this little kid stuff! Dad? Are there any kind of missions like that?!" Iruka corrected Naruto about his complaint, "Naruto! You're just a brand new genin with no experience! Like everyone else, you start with simple missions to develop your skills and proove yourself!" Naruto demanded, "Are you serious?! Something like babysitting isn't a mission! It's just a stupid-" Kushina was right behind her son and had her fists ready, "NARUTO! STOP BITCHING ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK AND DO WHAT YOUR FATHER ASKS OF YOU!" To which he uttered, "Ye-yes Mom." Yukimura was shivering a little as she thought, 'Aunt Kushina's really scary when she's angry..'

Old Hiruzen was smoking his pipe and explained to Naruto, "Listen Naruto, many different kinds of requests come into our village every day. From babysitting to assassination. These requests are carefully recorded, analyzed, then ranked A, B, C, or D depending on their difficulty. We ninja are also ranked by ability. Hokage at the top, Jonin, Chunin, and Genin at the bottom. At the highest level and assign them to Ninja who have the appropriate skill and experience and if the mission is successful, we receive a fee that supports our village and our work. Since you are untried Genin, you will be receiving D-rank missions."

Of course Naruto wasn't listening, but at least Yukimura was listening, then she tapped her cousin's shoulder, "Uh, Naruto? Were you listening to what elder Hiruzen just said?" Naruto turned around and told him, "Listen old man, I'm not the little kid you knew anymore! I'm a ninja now and I want a ninja mission!" He then sulked in his spot, arms folded. Anko rubbed the back of her head and commented, "I hate to break it to ya, Lord Hiruzen, but he's got a point. We gotta get these kids used to the hard reality of being ninja."

Iruka and Minato smiled, as Hiruzen chuckled, "Naruto wants us to know that he's not a brat, he's a FORMER brat, and he wants a mission." Minato told him, "Alright, then it's settled." Naruto, Yukimura and Sakura were stunned when they heard this. Minato continued, "Since you're so determined, Naruto, how about I give your squad a C-ranked mission? It entails guarding a VIP." Naruto's enthusiasm sprung through the roof as he asked, "Seriously? Who's the VIP? Are we guarding the daughter of a Daimyo? Or some important counciler?" Minato reassured his son, "Now don't get ahead of yourself, son. You'll find out soon enough." He instructed, "Send him in!"

All of squad 7 turned to the door, and in came an old man who seemed to be a carpenter or something of the matter with a bottle of sake in his hand. He was shocked at what he saw and asked, "What the?! A bunch o' lil snot nosed kids?!" From his slurred speech, he was obviously drunk. He took another swig of sake, pointed out to Naruto and asked, "An' you, with the idiotic look on yer face! You really expect me ta believe that ye're a ninja?!" Naruto laughed and asked back, "Who's the little one with the idiotic look on hi-" He then realized the old man was talking about himself, and was about to avenge this insult, but Anko held him back. "Ya can't demolish this guy! He's our client."

Surprisingly, the old man sobered up after taking a final swig of his sake. He then introduced himself, "I am Tazuna: A master bridge builder, and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world, and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it means giving up your life." Kushina was shocked at the thought of losing Naruto. She turned to Minato and asked him, "Minato? Do you really want to risk the death of our son?!" Minato reassured her, "Kushina, he'll be fine. I'm sure about it." Little did they know, this journey had death written all over it.

They then made it to the main gate, and Naruto was as pumped up as ever. He shouted, "Yeah! Alright!" Sakura asked him, "Naruto? Why all the excitement?" Naruto explained, "Sakura, this is the first time you and I ever left the village! We're travelers now, believe it!" Tazuna asked Anko, "Hey! Am I supposed to trust my life to this runt?! He's a joke!" Once again, his insult angered Naruto to the point where he wanted to kill him. Anko just chuckled, "He's the Hokage's kid, and I'm the jonin that's entrusted with keeping him alive."

Naruto turned to tell Tazuna that he would become the Hokage some day, but instead, he found Kushina walking up to him with tears brimming on her eyes. She hugged him tightly and told him, "Naruto...promise you'll try not to die on your father and I, okay?" Naruto realized this could mean he might not make it back alive. He hugged Kushina back and replied, "I'll try not to, mom. I'll write you every day I'm there." That's when she lost it, "My little boy's leaving the village for the first time in his life!" Yukimura knew Naruto would most likely be okay if nothing serious ever happened, yet she still was worried. The night the scroll of sealing was stollen, she had could hear Naruto demanding why the Nine-Tailed Fox was sealed within him.

Nevertheless, Minato told her to protect Naruto, as he had no actual battle experience out in the field. As a samurai she felt this was also her moment to fight for honor and the glory of her uncle. As the squad all left the village, Kushina waved farewell and called out to her son and niece, "Goodbye my darlings! Come back alive!" Naruto and Yukimura waved back, "We will!" Sakura looked at her two closest friends and thought, '_Wow. Lady Kushina must care a lot for those two...'_ As soon as they were far enough from the village she asked Tazuna, "Hey, Mr. Tazuna. Your country is the Land of Waves, right?" Tazuna asked back, "Yeah. What of it?" She then asked Anko, "Anko sensei? There are ninja in that country too, aren't there?" Anko shook her head, "Nah. There aren't any shinobi in the Land of Waves, but there are other hidden villages in some countries, just like the Hidden Leaf Village."

Anko then pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "I'm gonna sound a lot like the Third Hokage if I do this, but you are still genin. So might as well." She took out a scroll revealing a map of that part of the shinobi world. "In this part of the world, having a shinobi village equals military prowess, so as to defend themselves and maintain peace with their neighbors. Although each country is ruled by a Daimyo, the hidden villages aren't controlled by that Daimyo. Instead, they're independent and have the same status. Island nations, like the Land of Waves have the sea to provide natural protection. Yukimura's homeland, the Land of Iron, relies on the Samurai for military strength." Yukimura smiled upon hearing that.

Anko continued, "Because of that, these two countries don't really need ninja villages. That being said, there are 5 lands that possess ninja villages, those would be the land of water, lightning, wind, earth and our country, the land of fire. These 5 countries rule huge amounts of land, and as such they're called the 5 great shinobi nations. Each with it's own hidden village. The land of Fire has our Hidden Leaf village, The land of water has the hidden mist village, The land of lightning has the hidden cloud village, The land of wind has the hidden sand village and the land of earth has the hidden stone village. The five villages are ruled by the greatest of their village's ninja, kinda like how the Shogun of the Land of Iron is the greatest of that country's samurai. Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Tsuchikage and the Kazekage are the rulers of each of the 5 hidden villages."

Sakura's eyes widened and she was stunned, "Wow, so Naruto's dad must be really powerful." Naruto smiled, "Well yeah. He did save the village by defeating the Nine-Tailed fox." Anko relaxed after going instructional for so long and chuckled, "Well, there are no Ninja battles in a C-Ranked mission, so we'll be fine." Sakura smiled, "Then we're not going to run into any foreign enemies." Tazuna began to sweat a bit, and Yukimura turned with her left hand on her sword. Seeing nothing, she thought, '_Something's not right around here...'_

After a while of wandering down the trail, Yukimura noticed a puddle, and she kept looking at it in the corner of her eye. Just then two men wearing respirators and using huge claws as their weaponry launched a surprise attack. As soon as she saw them, Yukimura drew her sword and shouted, "It's an ambush! Defend Tazuna!" The two attackers released a shuriken chain from the gautlet that each of them wore. They tried binding Anko to it but she jumped out of the way and she could tell who her group was up against. '_Ha! So our enemies are the Demon Brothers, eh? Then I won't need to go easy on 'em!'_ Seeing that their attack failed, they went for Naruto while Sakura drew out a kunai to protect Tazuna. The brothers told Naruto, "Now, it's your turn!" and came straight at him. Yukimura, seeing as there was no other choice made a hand sign and shouted, "Samurai armor jutsu!"

In a puff of smoke she appeared in her own version of transformation jutsu. She was in her complete samurai armor, which proved to be pretty revealing as her cuirass only protected her chest while her waist was covered by a sheet of transparent chain mail. She wielded two stave weapons, a naginata in her right hand and a yari spear in her left. She placed both on the ground and threw a shuriken at the chain, then fired an arrow from her bow to embed the chain into a nearby tree. It worked, as both brothers were now struggling to be free. "I can't get loose!" Said one of them. Then Yukimura jumped high into the air and summoned a kanabo mace club. She then landed on the tree trunk and jumped towards the brothers, smashing them both with her great weapon.

The mechanism on both gauntlets withdrew the shuriken chain and they split up. One tried to head for Naruto, and succeeded in striking his hand, but at the sight of this, Yukimura drew her sword and slashed his gauntlet, thus disabling his right arm. The other of the two headed for Sakura and Tazuna, and she was doing her best by throwing shuriken and kunai knives at him, but when he finally got close enough, Anko got behind him and shouted, "Striking shadow snakes!" Four venomous snakes came out of Anko's left jacket sleeve and bit him. Luckily the amount of venom was only enough to make him numb.

Anko then grabbed the Demon Brothers and threw them near the base of a tree. She then went over to Naruto, and apologized, "Hey Naruto. Sorry about not being there for ya asap, I didn't think you'd freeze up." Naruto then thought to himself, _'I was useless! Yukimura owes me big time! What did Itachi teach her when she sparred with him?!'_ Yukimura rushed over to her cousin and knelt down to him, "Naruto? Cousin, you okay?" Naruto tried getting up but Anko told him, "Whoa Naruto! Lil' red flag goin' up! These ninja's claws are loaded with poison, we gotta extract if from you ASAP! We gotta open it up and get it outta you. Since it's in your blood moving will only let it circulate through your body." Sakura gasped in horror that her childhood friend might die before they ever got to the Land of Waves. Anko then turned to Tazuna and told him, "Bridge-builder. We're gonna need to talk about what we're up against."

Naruto just stood where he was, while Anko and the others gathered round the tree where the Demon Brothers were. Anko looked at them and said, "These guys are known as the Demon Brothers, a sibling duo from the Hidden Mist village. Despite being ninja, they specialize in relentless attacks and keep fighting no matter what they're up against." One of the brothers asked Yukimura, "How did you know about our ambush?" The samurai smiled and explained, "Come on! A puddle on the trail when it hasn't rained in weeks?" Anko then turned to Tazuna, "Judging from how the fight turned out, I'm guessing their real target was YOU, Mr. Tazuna. Am I right? This wasn't part of the deal. You only asked us to guard ya from thieves and highwaymen, not enemy ninja. If that were the case, then this is an A-ranked mission! You have your reasons, but lying is unacceptable!"

Sakura told the bridge builder, "We're genin, this is way beyond our level of training. We should go back, and I really think we should get the poison out of Naruto's wound. Back at our village, we can get him to a doctor." Yet this only infuriated Naruto, and he shouted, "Yukimura! Throw me your tanto!" She had no idea what her cousin was up to, but she unsheathed the dagger and tossed it over to him. Naruto took the dagger in his right hand, turned the blade downward and stabbed it right into his left hand, where the poison was. Yukimura and Anko were stunned that Naruto would stab himself, but Sakura gasped at this and asked, "Naruto, what are you doing?"

He replied, "I worked so hard to get here! Training with Yukimura for hours, anything to get stronger, to reach my dream." Blood infused with the poison trickled out of his hand, "I will never back down and let someone else rescue me! I will never run away, and I will not lose to that jerk ass, Sasuke! Upon this wound, I make this pledge: Believe it! Bridgebuilder, I will complete this mission and I will protect you with this tanto!" He turned to Tazuna with a grin on his face, "A real ninja never gives up, and neither will I! Don't you guys worry about me, I'll be fine, now let's go!"

Anko and Yukimura applauded, and the jonin stated bluntly, "Look Naruto, that was pretty awesome how you removed the poison, but you're gonna die if you lose any more blood." Naruto just looked at the wound he made and stood there shaking. Before he could panic, Anko examined his hand and tried to bandage the injury, but she saw that due to the Nine tailed fox inside of him, Naruto's wound was healing just fine.

Meanwhile, far away in a compound located in a forest in the Land of Waves, someone shouted, "You failed? YOU FAILED?! What is this amateur? I put out big money for you! I thought you're supposed to be hot-shot assassins!" The man was short and from his attire he was a big businessman, across the room was a muscular hidden mist shinobi with bandages across his lower face and a huge sword he wielded. He told the short man, "Stop whining! as he brought the tip of his sword right towards the man's neck and informed him, "This time, I'll go personally, and this sword will be the last thing he ever sees."

The man asked the mist ninja, "You sure about that? Apparently Tazuna has a high level ninja guarding him, and since your first attempt failed, they'll be expecting you back. They'll be waiting, watching, it'll take someone with very advanced skills." To which he replied, "Who do you think you're dealing with?! I am Zabuza Momochi: The demon of the hidden mist!"


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Assassin of the Mist!

Having fended off the attack from the Demon Brothers, Squad 7 had finally made it to the sea that provides passage between the land of Fire and the Land of Waves. The 5 of them chartered a small boat and rowed towards their destination under the cover of a dense fog. Naruto was at the bow, scanning the ocean for enemies. Sakura and Yukimura were sitting near him as the former whispered, "This fog is so thick, you can't see anything." The oarsman in charge of the boat knew exactly where they were and told them, "The bridge isn't far now. Our destination is just ahead, the land of waves."

Naruto looked into the fog, and he could make out the bridge's sillohuete, massive and patient, yet unfinished. He shouted, "Whoa! It's huge!" The oarsman told him, "Wha? Quiet! I told you, no noise! Why do you think we're travelling like this, huh?! Cutting off the engine and rowing? Moving through the dense fog? So they don't see us." Naruto covered his mouth in fear, and Anko turned to Tazuna, "Alright, Tazuna. Before we reach port, I got one question. Just who in the hell are the people that want you dead?! If you can't tell me, then I'm ending the mission right when we get ashore."

Tazuna sighed and said, "I have no choice but to tell you the truth. No, I want you to know the truth. Like you said, this is beyond the scope of the original mission. The man who seeks my life is a very short man who casts a very long and deadly shadow." Anko raised an eyebrow, "A deadly shadow, eh? And just who is this guy?" Tazuna replied, "You know him, or at least I'm sure you heard his name before. He's one of the wealthiest men in the world. The shipping magnet, Gato." Anko was shocked, "Wha? As in the head of Gato transport? The man's a business leader. Everyone's heard of him." Naruto was anxious to know who his group was up against.

Tazuna explained, "Gato is very powerful tycoon from a famous company. That's true, but below the surface, with the same ruthless methods he uses to take over businesses and nations, he sells drugs and contraband using gangs and ninja. It was 1 year ago, when Gato first set his sight on the land of waves. He came to our island and used his vast wealth to take total control over our transport and shipping. Anyone who tried to stand in his way simply...disappeared. In an island nation, a man who controls the sea controls everything. Finance, government, our very lives. Yet there is one thing he fears, the bridge. When it is complete, it will join us to the land and that will break his control. I am the bridge builder."

Sakura smirked, "So THAT'S it. Since you're in charge of the bridge, you're standing in this gangster's way." Yukimura then put 2 and 2 together, "So then that means those men we fought in the forest, were working for Gato." Naruto still seemed confused, however. Anko asked Tazuna again, "I don't understand. If you knew all about this, then why hide it from us?" Tazuna told her, "Because the land of waves...is a small impoverished nation. Even our nobles have little money. The common people working on this bridge, they can't pay for an A, or B-rank mission. It's too expensive. If you end the mission when you drop me ashore, there will be no bridge. They'll assassinate me before I'll reach home...but don't feel bad about that, of course my sweet little grandson will be upset. He'll cry, 'Grand-dad! I want my grand-dad!'"

Naruto and Sakura felt sorry for him, but Tazuna continued, "Oh! and my daughter will condemn the ninja of the hidden leaves, denouncing and blaming you for abandoning her father, and living her life in sorrow. Oh well, its not your fault. Forget it." While Anko and Sakura felt sympathetic and bad about what would happen, Naruto and Yukimura knew that if Kushina found out about Tazuna's death, it would mean the end of their lives. Anko sighed and said, "Well, looks like there's no way out of it. We'll have ta keep guarding ya." Tazuna smiled and replied, "Oh. I'm very greatful." knowing that he had won them over.

The oarsman then told them, "We're approaching the shore." After going through a tunnel, the land of waves appeared before them. At a glance it was a cluster of houses built along a small series of islands, surrounded by mangrove trees and the sun was shining brightly. When they had reache the shore, the oarsmen told them, "That's as far as I go. Good luck." Tazuna replied, "Right. Thank you for taking such a risk." The oarsman started up the motor on his boat and warned him, "Just be careful." After the boat left, Tazuna told squad 7, "Alright, take me to my home. And I mean get me there in one piece!" Anko nodded and let Tazuna guide them, knowing that the next assassin would be much stronger. As they were traveling, a rabbit passed by. Yukimura immediately noticed it and thought, '_That's a snow rabbit...but the color, they only have white fur during the winter. This rabbit was probably raised indoors, and away from sunlight. That could only mean that someone's following us.'_ She was right, Zabuza was hiding in a tree when he noticed her.

He gripped his sword and thought, '_No wonder the Demon brothers failed their mission. One of them's a samurai from the land of Iron.'_ He then hurled his sword straight for Tazuna. Yukimura gripped her sword, Anko sensed that a threat was nearby and they all saw the massive blade in the air, taking cover as it finally got embeded in a tree. Then Zabuza jumped onto the hilt and revealed himself. Anko smiled and remarked, "So, Gato sent Zabuza Momochi, the demon of the hidden mist." Zabuza looked at them all and noticed Yukimura. "Hmmph. A Samurai working for the leaf village, and a genin at that. It's too bad, huh? But you four will have to hand over the old man."

Anko readied herself for battle and shouted, "Squad 7! Manji formation: Protect old man Tazuna!" That was when she pulled out a special dagger she used since the Chunin Exams. Then another sheet of fog formed over them, Tazuna explained that their proximity to the sea was responsible for the fog. Yet Zabuza crouched down on the hilt of his sword and said, "Enough talking. I need to exterminate the old man, Now!" Tazuna feared his end would come, but the genin got in front of him, weapons ready. Yukimura's samurai armor gleamed in the little light there was left. Zabuza knew this wasn't going to be easy and asked, "So I'll have to go through you first, eh Jonin? So be it." He then grabbed his sword from the tree and appeared on the surface of a nearby lake. Naruto shouted, "He's over there!" Sakura added, "Standing on the water!"

Zabuza then shouted, "Ninja art: Hidden mist Jutsu!" and the fog became more dense. Anko got out in front of her team and told them, "Alright, kids. This guy is Zabuza Momochi: Former leader of the Hidden Mist assassination unit and expert of silent killing." Naruto quivered in nervousness, "S-s-silent killing?" Anko nodded, "Yeah. Hence the name, it happens in a split second. Without any warning or any sound at all. It's so quick that you die with no clue what went on. Not even a Sharingan can neutralize it, so maintain your positions." They all nodded to her and she then said bluntly, "Worst comes to worse we'll probably all die." Sakura demanded, "How can you say that?!"

The mist got thicker and more dense than the first time. Zabuza's voice could be heard, "8 points...Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart. Now, which will be my attack point?" They all knew that this was for real, and were terrified. Except for Yukimura, as a samurai bound by the teachings of Bushido, she was constantly thinking that every time she went into battle, she always believed that she would surely die, but because of that mindset, she was able to win every battle she faced so far. Seeing that the mist was so thick, Anko built up her chakra to dispell it, thus restoring visibility. She told her team, "Look, I told Lord Minato and Lady Kushina that I wouldn't let any of you die, so that's exactly what I plan to do."

Then Zabuza's voice replied, "I wouldn't be too sure about that!" He then appeared in the center of the group and chuckled, "It's over!" Anko rushed to her students, but then Zabuza felt a sharp pain in his abdomen as a leaf jonin with white hair and a mask stabbed the rouge ninja with his kunai knife. Naruto instantly smiled upon seeing the figure, "Kakashi sensei!" Kakashi and Sasuke had arrived just in time to take down Zabuza, as he was not only a rouge ninja, but he was also one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Yet instead of blood, water fell from Zabuza's body. Then another appeared right behind him and slashed him in half, yet it was also water, instead of blood that came out. Kakashi had used his Sharingan left eye to copy the water clone jutsu. He then chuckled again, "Kakashi of the Sharingan eye. Did I get that right? Our bingo book identified you as the man who copied a thousand jutsu. The Copy Ninja."

Then Anko had her dagger right at Zabuza's throat, "Alright! Drop the sword and place both hands over your head. Now!" Little did they ever know that Zabuza would have more tricks up his sleeves.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Oath of Pain!

With Zabuza finally outmaneuvered, victory for Squad 7 seemed imminent, but then the rouge ninja chuckled, "You really don't get it, do you Kakashi? Your technique is nothing but a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a mere copycat ninja like you!" Kakashi seemed insulted by this, but Zabuza told him, "You are full of surprises, though. You had already copied my water clone jutsu when you made your little debut. Very skillfully executed. As soon as the girl said those words to draw my attention, you had your clone strike while you hid in the mist, waiting for me to make my move...Nice try, but I'm not that easy to fool!" Another Zabuza came up behind Anko revealing the one she caught to be another water clone.

Zabuza then swung his massive blade at her, but she ducked. He then tried to kick her, but Kakashi got in the way and was sent flying in mid-air. Zabuza tried to follow, but instead encountered a patch of caltrops Yukimura had set up earlier. This was no match for Zabuza, as he merely followed Kakashi into the water. When the Copy ninja resurfaced, he sensed something odd, '_This isn't normal water...its dense, heavy.'_ Zabuza appeared behind him, made the correct hand signs and chuckled, "Fool! Water Prison Jutsu!" Before he could react, Kakashi was imprisoned in a ball of water. He thought to himself, '_Escaping into the water, bad mistake.'_ Zabuza explained to him, "This prison is made of water, but its stronger than steel. Its hard to fight when you can't move, so much for the great Kakashi. I'll finish you off later, but first your little friends will have to be eliminated."

He then used Water Clone Jutsu to deal with Squad 7. He said to them, particularly Naruto, "You think that wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you hover between life and death so many times, it doesn't phase you. Then, you may be called a Ninja. When you've become so deadly, your profile is entered in my bingo book, then you may have earned the title of Ninja." He then used hidden mist jutsu and continued, "But to call upstarts like you, ninja, is a joke!" He then kicked Naruto so hard, that his headband came flying off from his forehead. "You're just brats!"

This angered Yukimura greatly, as he was imputing her honor and honor is everything to a samurai. Anko glared at Zabuza in disgust, because she already went through much worse than what this mist village amateur claimed he was. Yet Kakashi told them, "Listen! Get the bridge builder and run! You can't win this fight! He's using all this power to keep me in this prison, so he can only fight you with his water clone, but the clone can't go far from his real body. If you get away from him, he can't follow, now run!" Yukimura gripped her nodaichi sword tightly and shouted, "So you would just let us run?! Not a chance! That would only bring shame and dishonor to the village! I won't allow that to happen...Also Zabuza, you forget one thing: I'm not a ninja! I'm a samurai!"

Sakura knew that she had to fight, so Anko and her joined Yukimura and provided missile attacks from kunai and shuriken. Yet Zabuza's clone swept them away not realizing the kunai contained bits of paper bombs made to look like cherry blossom petals, Sakura then took a kunai with a full paper bomb attached to it and shouted, "Sakura blizzard jutsu!" She threw the kunai, lighting the paper bomb as a chain explosion took place, weakening the water clone but not destroying it. Seeing the others fight with such determination made Naruto remember the pledge he made to Tazuna back in the Land of Fire, and he gathered all the strength he mustered and ran straight at the clone. Sakura was shocked and begged, "Naruto, wait! You don't stand a chance against him!"

The clone just kicked the boy again and sent him flying. This time, Naruto began coughing out blood. Sakura rushed over to him and held him in her arms, with tears in her eyes. "Naruto, you dummy. We're only genin, what were you thinking?" She asked her crush. He then wiped the blood from his mouth, and showed her his headband that he recovered. She helped him get up onto his feet, and he told Zabuza, "Hey you! The freak with no eyebrows. Put this in your bingo book: The ninja that will become Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves..." He put on his ninja headband again and continued, "...who never backs down. His name's Naruto Namikaze!"

Anko admired her new student's courage, as did Yukimura. Sakura smiled at Naruto's will to fight. Even Tazuna was impressed, as he thought, '_I thought he was all talk, but this kid's got guts.'_ Naruto asked, "Alright! Sasuke, Yukimura, can you two hear me?" Sasuke nodded, "Yeah, so what?" Yukimura responded, "Loud and clear, cousin!" The young jinchuriki told them, "I got a plan." Yukimura turned to her cousin and smiled, "Okay! Let's hear it." Anko was stunned and impressed by the new plan of action Naruto had in mind, '_Lady Kushina's gonna be shocked when she hears this...'_ Sakura blushed at Naruto and the pounding in her heart began to grow louder, '_Why can't I shake this feeling, that Naruto's so...so amazing?'_

Naruto wiped away the last trickle of blood from his mouth and grinned. "Alright, now guys...Let's go wild!" Kakashi saw a formidable look in Zabuza's eyes and shouted, "What are you doing?! I told you to run! This fight was over the moment I got caught, now take off!" Anko realized what Kakashi was talking about and turned to her genin, "I hate ta say this, but Kakashi's right. This isn't ta test how tough you three are, but to protect the old man Tazuna." Naruto turned to Tazuna, but he replied, "Well I guess this all happened because of me, because of my desire to live, but I won't let that stand in your way now. Forget about me and do what you have to do! Go ahead and fight to save that boy's sensei!" He was obviously referring to Sasuke, since Kakashi was the Jonin for Squad 6.

Yukimura smiled, and Sasuke told Kakashi, "Alright! Ya hear that?" Naruto added on, "Yeah, believe it! You ready?" However, Zabuza only found their determination pretty hilarious, as he said to them, "You really haven't learned anything, have you? Still playing your little game, pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, my hands had already crushed many opponents!" Naruto and Sakura gasped, but Yukimura and Anko were only further disgusted by this revelation. Kakashi then muttered, "Zabuza! The demon!" The rouge ninja asked Kakashi, "Oh! So I was in your book to, huh?"

Anko explained to the three friends, "During the reign of the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, the only way Hidden Mist Academy students became ninja was to undergo a final test." Zabuza asked Anko, "You know about the graduation exam?" As a member of the infiltration and Recon team, this was expected of her. Naruto demanded, "What graduation exam? What's the big deal anyway? We had graduation exams too!" Zabuza explained, "Did you have to annihilate the other students to pass?" Yukimura's eyes grew wide with anger and shock. He continued to torment Naruto, "Imagine young ninja like you, eating together, training together, and then comes the final exam. Only the rules changed! You couldn't stop until you destroyed your opponent. He was your friend, shared your dreams, now it's him or you!" Sakura was horrified as she commented, "That's so cruel!"

Kakashi explained, "Ten years ago in the Village Hidden in the Mist, graduation exam...changed. One year before, a dark evil had filled the school with terror." Sakura raised an eyebrow, "What's he saying? What evil? What kind of change? What caused the terror?" Kakashi told her, "Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who was not even a ninja, approached the class...and took down over 100 other students." Zabuza hung his head for a moment and smiled underneath his mask, "It...it felt so...good!" Naruto and Sakura were horrified, but Yukimura only further angered. The water clone of Zabuza then proceeded to beat try and kill Sasuke. He elbowed the boy's solar plexis twice, causing him to go flying into the air the first time, and the second time, he hacked up a huge amount of blood. Although Sakura and the other two were somewhat awed by this, Kakashi looked on in horror as his student was about to be killed.

At that point Naruto used his shadow clone jutsu and a great many of them surrounded Zabuza as they all lunged forward at him with kunai knives in their hands. Yet Zabuza knocked them all away with one swing of his sword. Tazuna remarked, "His skills are too advanced. He's too powerful, there's no way to defeat him!" Naruto skidded along the ground but he threw something out of his backpack to Sasuke, some sort of weapon. From the design of it, it was a Demon wind shuriken. Sasuke thought, '_So THAT was your plan. Not bad, Naruto!'_ He then caught the weapon in his hand, and unfolded it. He then shouted, "DEMON WIND SHURIKEN! WINDMILL OF SHADOWS!" He and Yukimura then jumped into the air and both weapon and samurai headed straight for the real Zabuza.

Yukimura drew her nodaichi and readied herself. Yet Zabuza caught the first shuriken, he could not hope to see a second one coming straight at him. He then jumped to avoid it, dropping the other one in the process. That was when the plan went into motion, as the second shuriken turned into the real Naruto, armed with a kunai knife and he shouted, "EAT THIS!" as he threw the kunai straight towards the water prison...


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Kakashi, Sharingan warrior

The kunai came flying straight at Zabuza, and he had no choice but to withdraw his right hand from the water prison, and then Yukimura appeared at full force with her nodachi coming at him. Unexpecting this, Zabuza blocked the oncoming attack with the flat of his sword. Despite what it seemed to look like, Yukimura's sword couldn't be broken! She had channeled her chakra into the cutting edge of the blade and was able to send Zabuza off balance. As the water clone came towards her, Yukimura used the one way that a samurai could ensure their victory in battle: Iaijutsu. She gripped her katana, and when she was within striking distance, she drew her sword and sliced right through the clone, destroying it. Then the real Zabuza grabbed the real shuriken he dropped and came at Naruto with it in his hand. He growled, "I'll destroy you!"

Before he could reach the genin, Kakashi blocked the shuriken with his right fist. He was drenching wet and furious. Naruto popped his head out of the water and Sakura was relieved to know he was still alive. Kakashi told his sensei's son, "Naruto, that was an excellent plan! You've really grown, haven't you?" Naruto laughed, "I knew I couldn't beat him with my shadow clones, that was just to distract him. While he fought the clones, I turned into the demon wind shuriken. He didn't know what to do, believe it! I used one of the clones to transform into the shuriken and when I threw it to Sasuke, it looked like a REAL shuriken. Sasuke could tell it was me in a second, so he spun around so nobody could see and pulled out his own shuriken. Now there were 2 shuriken: One was real and one was me! I hid in the shadow of the real shuriken and Yukimura alongside me in the cover of mist. Of course I knew I couldn't beat Zabuza head on, so I just wanted to get in there and break up his water prison, while Yukimura wrecked his clone. That was a bonus, believe it!"

Tazuna shouted, "THE WHOLE THING WAS JUST A FLUKE!" Sakura thought to herself, '_You could call it a fluke, but Naruto and Yukimura's teamwork was flawless. They knew what to do without even talking about it! I spent a lot of time with them at the Academy, and they're a perfect team!' _Zabuza chuckled, "I got distracted by you and that samurai and lost my grip on the water prison." Anko remarked, "Cut the flattery! You weren't distracted, my students forced you to break the water prison!" Kakashi told his opponent, "Your technique worked on me once, but it won't work again! So, what's it gonna be?" Zabuza remained silent for a while until he folded the shuriken and pushed harder onto Kakashi's metal glove protector, yet the copy ninja threw the weapon away. Meanwhile, Sakura and Yukimura focused on guarding Tazuna, while Anko prepared to use her striking shadow snakes on the swordsman.

That was when the two jonin jumped away from each other and Kakashi copied Zabuza's hand signs. "ox, monkey, hare, rat, boar, bird, ox, horse, bird, tiger, dog, tiger, snake, ox, ram, dragon..." It continued until they finally stopped at bird and both shouted, "WATER STYLE: WATER DRAGON JUTSU!" Within an instant, two dragons appeared out of the water and collided with each other until Kakashi's bit the side of Zabuza's. Everyone looked on in awe, as Zabuza and Kakashi clashed, sword against kunai. Zabuza then realized that both dragons appeared simultaneously and wondered what Kakashi was planning. As the fight raged on, Yukimura couldn't help but feel that they were being watched.

The two Jonin ceased their attack and made the same sign for a new jutsu simultaneously. Tazuna stated, "He's not just following, he moves the same way at the same time!" Sakura was stunned at this, but Sasuke just looked on at his sensei with determination. Zabuza thought, '_My movements! Its as if he knows what I'm-'_ Kakashi asked, "Going to do next?" This made Zabuza fear that Kakashi was reading his mind too. The copy ninja then asked, "It makes you furious, doesn't it?" Zabuza remarked, "Ha! All you're doing is copying me, like a monkey!" They then said simultaneously, "You can't beat me with cheap tricks! I'll crush you!" This made Zabuza angry to the point of madness and he growled, "When I'm finished with you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again!" That's when he saw a myriad reflection of himself behind Kakashi as the latter shouted out, "WATER STYLE: GIANT VORTEX JUTSU!" At which point the magamata of the sharingan began to spin rapidly.

A huge torrent of water sent Zabuza flying and even took out a few trees in the process. Zabuza was dumbfounded that he couldn't keep up with Kakashi, and that his foe was able to use the jutsu he planned on using. Fortunately Naruto was able to hang onto a tree and was spared being washed away. Yet Zabuza had his back right up against a tree trunk, and as he was about to charge at Kakashi, Anko got behind him and used her striking shadow snakes to finish him off. She chuckled, "Not so fast, you bastard! You're finished! Striking shadow snakes!" This time the venom wasn't potent enough to kill him, but it just knocked him out for several hours. Unfortunately for the leaf shinobi, two needles then stuck themselves into his neck.

Squad 7 and Kakashi were shocked, but Yukimura could see who threw those needles, and drew her sword shouting, "Up there!" She then asked, "Alright! Who the hell are you and what do you want?!" Naruto waded ashore at that moment and saw the newcomer. He was dressed in green with a long sleeved outfit underneath his yukata like outfit and he wore an ANBU mask with the hidden mist village insignia on it. Anko went over to Zabuza's body to check for a pulse, knowing that she didn't pump that much snake venom inside him. Still she got no pulse. "He's frickin' dead." she muttered.

The newcomer bowed at Yukimura and replied, "Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for this chance to finally take him down." She couldn't help but be angry at him. She told him, "You're one of the hidden mist's tracker ninja, aren't you?" He bowed and replied, "Impressive, I'm surprised you've been informed." Naruto knew what a tracker ninja was because of the Leaf village's ANBU black ops, which were similar to the Hidden Mist's trackers. The boy explained, "I'm a member of the elite tracking unit from the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was my duty to stop Zabuza."

Yukimura gave him nothing but contempt, as she could never forget how Itachi joined up with the Akatsuki. Seeing his cousin's anger, Naruto shouted to the tracker, "What is this?! Who do you think you are?!" While Sakura and Anko were stunned, the boy gave no answer. He asked again, "Did you hear me?!" He was angry that a kid his age could take down Zabuza with one blow. The tracker then teleported down from the tree and picked up Zabuza's body. He told the two cousins, "Your struggle is over for now. I shall deal with the remains. There are many secrets within this body, they must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me, farewell." Then he teleported by means of wind to who knows where.

Feeling betrayed once again, Yukimura could never forgive herself if she let someone who was just like Itachi impute her honor as a samurai. She knew she would have to train harder to become better. Naruto was also angry that he felt as if he was nothing, and began venting his fury by punching the ground. Sakura went over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, "Naruto, please. Lets get back to our mission and escort Mr. Tazuna home. Okay?" He looked up at her and nodded, "Yeah." Anko chuckled, and told her group, "Alright! Let's get ol' man Tazuna to his bridge!" Tazuna lifted his straw hat and smiled, "Sorry I caused all this trouble for ya, but you can rest at my house when we get to the village!"

Anko smiled, and told her squad, "Alright! You have your marching orders, now lets move out!" They then continued onto Tazuna's home. Kakashi and Sasuke would remain in a separate lodging should they need reinforcements when Gato sent his whole army of mercenaries and ninja.

* * *

(In case some of you reading this noticed, that clash between Zabuza and Yukimura was actually a reference to the Battle of Kawanakajima.)


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Forest of Chakra

Later in the day, Squad 7 had finally reached Tazuna's village and soon they were allowed to rest at his home with his daughter, Tsunami. Yukimura then changed into a more casual training outfit, which consisted of sarashi bandages around her huge breasts and her hakama pants, she even let her hair down for this occasion. Naruto immediately got to work on writing home to Kushina and telling his mother about their battles with the demon brothers and Zabuza. Soon Anko summoned the both of them and Sakura to the guest room for more information on the tracker ninjas.

It was obvious that Anko and Tazuna were talking about Kakashi, as the bridge builder told her, "Well, he did take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins, so we'll be safe for a while." Sakura, Naruto and Yukimura entered the room at that moment, and she asked, "Yeah, but that boy with the mask, what about him?" Anko replied, "He's from the elite tracking unit of the Hidden Mist Village, as only the elite shinobi can wear those masks." Still confused, Sakura asked, "What exactly do they do?" Yukimura nodded to her sensei that it was appropriate if she told her.

She told her pink haired childhood friend, "Those trackers are known as the ANBU black ops. They're in charge of destroying all traces of a rouge ninja's dead body, as it contains many secrets from ninjutsu to the hierarchy of their village. If those secrets fall into the wrong hands, then that village is in great danger. For instance, what if Anko sensei's jutsu could be used against the village? That would ultimately lead to the village's destruction. Therefore the ANBU black ops are tasked with preventing this from ever happening." She remembered from the days before Itachi left the village and felt betrayed by her friend. Since then, Yukimura could never fully trust the ANBU black ops.

Elsewhere, The ANBU from the hidden mist finally got to work on Zabuza. He said to the corpse, "First I'll cut the bandages and drain some of the blood." There was just one slight problem: Zabuza was still alive! His eyes opened wide, and he lowered the bandage that covered his mouth, telling the boy, "That's enough! I'LL do it!" The boy was not impressed as he remarked, "So, you've already come back to life." Zabuza got up and complained to him as he pulled the needles out of his neck, "Haku, you're brutal!" Haku countered by telling him, "YOU'RE the one that's brutal, Zabuza. If you keep duking him out like that, you really will be finished." With the needles gone, the venom from Anko's snakes could finally drain out of his body.

Zabuza growled in relief, and told Haku, "How long are you planning to wear that phony mask?! Take it off!" Haku replied, "I have good memories of this mask, and it was quite useful for tricking that samurai with the ninja." He took off the mask and revealed himself to look almost like a girl. He continued, "If I hadn't intervened, you'd be dead now. That much is certain." Zabuza told his protege, "Putting me in a temporary death state is fine, but NOT through the pressure points in my neck! Cruel as usual, I think you enjoy it!" Haku just remained there, smiling at his sensei. "It was the only sure way. That snake venom just helped me out, and I wouldn't wanna mark up your flawless body, you'd complain about that even more. The neck is more vulnerable, there's no layer of muscle, so I could go straight for the pressure points."

Zabuza tried getting up, but that snake venom had one last effect as Haku pointed out, "There's no point in moving, you'll be numb for a week. Although if you're stubborn as usual, you'll probably be moving in half the time." Zabuza glared at him, growling, "You're SO innocent, and yet clever at the same time. Rare combination, that's why I keep you around." Haku merely chuckled, "I'm still a kid, what else did you expect?" He then got up and noticed the sun was out, "The mist is cleared. Next time, will you be alright?" Zabuza told him, "Next time...I'll see right through his sharingan!"

Back at Tazuna's house, Anko couldn't shake the feeling that Zabuza wasn't truly dead. Naruto asked, "Hey! Are you okay? Anko sensei?" Anko regained her wits and nodded, "Yeah. Just fine." Yukimura then felt the same feeling and stated, "Wait, ANBU black ops are supposed to destroy the corpse on the spot, and leave no room for error." Sakura asked, "Is that really important?" Yukimura and Anko nodded, as the samurai explained, "Yeah. Remember what that ANBU did with the body?" Sakura shook her head, "We don't know what he did with it. He just teleported away somewhere." Yukimura nodded, "Yeah, but he should've worked on the body ASAP and on spot." Anko added on, "Lets not forget the weaponry he used to take him down as well." Tazuna asked, "What are you all talking about? You demolished that assassin!"

Anko finally realized what was going on and cursed, "Then...Damn! He's still alive!" Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna were all in shock that there the needles didn't kill the swordsman, jaws dropped. Tsunami just raised an eyebrow. Naruto then protested, "But we saw his body! Believe it!" Sakura added on, "Anko sensei, you checked him yourself! You said that his heart stopped!" Anko nodded, "It did, but only temporarily to make it look like he was dead, besides my snakes didn't inject that much venom into him to kill him. That ANBU also used senbon, needles that aren't lethal unless you aim them at a vital organ instead of at the neck. They're basically amped up acupuncture needles."

Yukimura nodded, "ANBU ninja are trained to know every single detail about the human body. To them, keeping the body alive while causing the heart to temporarily stop is child's play. This boy teleported with Zabuza's body to a different location, in spite of the fact that the boy weighed less than him. Then, he utilized senbon, which although have a precise effect, are highly non-lethal. " Anko continued, "Given these two clues, we can guess that the tracker was trying to save Zabuza instead of trying to do him in." Tazuna told her, "Come on. You're overthinking this, aren't you?" Anko shook her head, "Nah. Whenever suspicion comes up, ninja have to assess the situation quickly, otherwise the outcome is pretty bad. All shinobi are taught this."

Naruto started shivering, but he instantly grinned with confidence. Anko and Yukimura smiled at him and Anko told him, "Well, Naruto. Looks like you got your second chance at beating him!" Sakura asked her, "Anko sensei, you said prepare quickly, but how?" Anko smiled, "Alright! Squad 7 will undergo specialized training to go up against this criminal." Sakura then protested, "Hold on! A little last minute training won't make us strong enough to fight Zabuza! Kakashi sensei could barely defeat him, even with his sharingan! We have to be reasonable about this!" Inside her head, Sakura thought, '_WHAT, ARE YA TRYING TO GET US KILLED?! CHA!'_

Yukimura asked, "Sakura, why was Kakashi sensei able to stop him? Because we were all there to help him, we've grown." She then ruffled her cousin's hair and smiled at him, "Especially you, Naruto, have grown the most." Sakura looked at Naruto and blushed, '_Come to think of it, Naruto has gotten stronger...and manlier.'_ Naruto chuckled, "So you and Anko sensei have noticed, Yukimura? Now things are gonna get better, believe it!" While Anko and Yukimura smiled back, a voice rebuked, "I DON'T believe it, and nothing's gonna be good!" They all turned and saw a little boy in front of them. Naruto asked bluntly, "Who are you?!"

Tazuna opened his arms and smiled at the boy, "Aw! Inari! Where've ya been?" Inari then rushed up to hug Tazuna, "Welcome back, grammpa!" Tsunami corrected her son, "Inari! That was very rude! The three ninja and the samurai have helped your grandpa and brought him here safely!" Tazuna chuckled, "Its okay, its okay. I'm rude to them, too!" Yet Inari just stared at the two genin and the samurai then told Tsunami, "Mom, don't you see? These people are gonna die! Gato and his men will come back and find them, and wipe them out!" Naruto got up and protested, "What did you say, brat?! Listen up! You know what a super ninja is? Well, that's me, only a lot better! I'm gonna be Hokage! This Gato, or Blato, or whatever he's called is no match for a real hero like me!" Inari scoffed him off, "Ha! There's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas!"

Naruto charged at him, but Sakura stopped him from beating Inari. The kid then turned back and told him, "If you wanna stay alive, you should go back where you came from!" He then turned to take his leave when Tazuna asked him,"Inari, wait! Where are you going?" The boy replied, "To look out at the ocean. I wanna be alone!" Yukimura looked at him as he left while Tazuna apologized to the genin, "Sorry about that." She told the bridge builder, "It's okay. I don't mind what he said, besides he only just made me even more determined. Samurai are taught not to fear death and to fight to the end." Naruto, on the other hand went to pummel Inari as punishment, but then he heard the boy crying. Feeling like a jerk for speaking out against him, he headed back downstairs.

The next day, Anko brought her squad out to a forest to learn how to manipulate the flow of chakra. She explained to them that if they build up so much of their chakra, then they'll just end up with a fluke when they try using jutsu, and they'll be out of chakra. "We're gonna train you guys to the point where chakra control is second nature! How do ya do that? You three are gonna be tree climbing...without using your hands." Sakura stared at her sensei dumbfounded, and asked, "What? You're kidding?" Anko smiled and shook her head. Then she channeled her chakra at the soles of her feet and began walking up the trunk, literally. She told her students, "You get the picture. Now focus your chakra at the soles of your feet and just start running at the tree. You can use a kunai knife or in Yukimura's case, a tanto, to mark how high you've gotten up and try passing that mark."

Sakura asked, "Wait a minute, that's a nice trick but how is this gonna help us defeat Zabuza?" Anko stated, "Its the only way we'll defeat Zabuza. If you get the hang of this, then in theory learning how to master jutsu is gonna be easier." She then explained that they needed to run at the tree for momentum to take them as high as possible until they got more comfortable with the feeling. Naruto and Sakura took two kunai knives and Yukimura unsheathed her tanto. The three of them then concentrated their chakra to the soles of their feet and set off running. Each one of them chose a tree and tried climbing it.

Unfortunately for Naruto, he just ended up tumbling to the ground, but Yukimura managed to climb a great distance before her foot began to sink into the bark. She then slashed where she stopped with the tanto and jumped back onto the ground. She began to realize that if the chakra is too strong then it leaves an imprint on where the foot landed last. Too weak, and the user is sent tumbling down. Anko whistled at amazement, "Didn't expect Yukimura to go that far. Naruto, on the other hand..." Sakura then exclaimed, "Hey! This is fun!" She had already made it to the top of her chosen tree and was sitting on one of its branches, giggling away.

Anko remarked, "It seems that Miss Haruno is pretty good at this!" Naruto was stunned as he cheered, "Yeah! Way to go Sakura! I always knew you were awesome, believe it!" Upon hearing this, Sakura began blushing as she smiled at him, "Oh Naruto, you always put me in a good mood." Yukimura applauded and smiled. Anko stated, "Looks like Sakura can maintain and control her chakra pretty well! She'll pass the Chunin exams in no time!" Sakura didn't react, as all she had on her mind was training with Naruto. Anko knew that Naruto and Yukimura had more chakra within them, and if this kept up, then those two could use it as a valuable tool.

Naruto shouted, "Alright! First I'll match Yukimura, then I'll go all the way to the top! Believe it!" Unknown to them, Inari was watching them train, but he soon headed back home and remarked, "Ha! What a waste of time. They don't know what they're up against!" He then remembered the image in his room and grew infuriated that the man, his father let him down. He then stood there in the forest as Naruto and Yukimura tried to manage controling their chakra.

Meanwhile, at Zabuza's hideout, the demon of the hidden mist lay in his bed, still numb from the combined effects of Haku's cover up attack and Anko's snake venom. Haku was at his side, keeping watch over him, then Gato showed up. This time he was accompanied by two samurai bodyguards, one with a purple hat: Zori, and another with tan skin and multiple tattoos on his body while missing a right eye: Waraji. Gato taunted, "Some Jonin! The unbeatable ninja just got beat, limping back home like some pathetic has-been. Demon of the Hidden Mist? More like COWARD of the Hidden Mist!" Haku then got up from his seat in frustration that someone would dare insult his master. Soon Waraji and Zori began to draw their swords.

Haku noticed this, but Gato told them to stand down as he approached the bedridden Zabuza. He demanded to the swordsman, "Alright! Let's hear what you have to say about this fiasco! And don't play possum, I know you can talk!" He then reached for Zabuza but Haku grabbed his arm so tightly that he was nearly crushing the bone. He glared at Gato and warned him, "Keep your filthy hands off of him!" Gato shouted in pain, "Argh! You're gonna break it!" Then Zori and Waraji were about to draw their swords, but Haku disarmed them before they could attack. The two samurai thought, '_That's impossible!'_, _ 'No one can move that fast!' _ Haku then warned them in a low grim tone of voice, "Don't push me. I'm in a really fowl mood."

Gato complied and told them, "ONE CHANCE! THAT'S IT, but if you fail this time, I'll cut you off and there'll be no one left to cover for you!" He then gave his bodyguards the signal to leave, and they followed him out. When Haku and Zabuza were finally alone again, Zabuza told his protege, "Haku, that wasn't necessary." Haku replied, "Perhaps, but it's too early to take out Gato. He's still our best cover, think about it. The murders would draw their attention, then they'd be after us again. We need...restraint." Zabuza knew that Haku was talking about the Hidden Mist's ANBU black ops. He sighed and then muttered, "Right."

As Gato left the forest with his bodyguards, Zori heard the sound of a girl attacking. He went off to see where it was, and that while Naruto and Sakura were tired from climbing trees so much, Yukimura was taking a break and was training with her bokuto so as to get closer to her dream of becoming the first samurai of the Hidden Leaf Village. Seeing Yukimura honing her kenjutsu skills made Zori realize that he had traded away his honor for becoming a petty bodyguard for some corrupt power crazed business tycoon. He then left as not to arouse suspicion. Yet he thought, '_What the hell am I doing?! That girl obviously was another samurai, and she's still got her honor...If she's here in the morning, I'll try to learn more about her...' _

Naruto went over to Sakura and asked, "Hey, Sakura? You're good at this, how bout some advice?" Sakura blushed and smiled knowing that she'd be more than happy to help out Naruto. Anko noticed this and thought, '_Looks like he's finally catching onto this...He'll get stronger in no time. He's got more chakra than any of us combined... ' _

* * *

(Yes I will eventually have Zori go from working for Gato to fighting alongside Yukimura. Sorry if you're unhappy with this decision, but I'm just trying to mix things up a little.)


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Land Where a Hero Once Lived

That afternoon, Sakura accompanied Tazuna to guard him while he was completing the bridge that would connect the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire. While she was sitting around, Tazuna asked her, "You always this lazy? Where's that weird blonde kid and the samurai cousin of his?" Sakura told him, "They're training, climbing trees." Tazuna asked again, "Too tough for you?" She replied, "No, in fact I'm the best. That's why Anko sensei sent me here to guard you." The old man remarked, "You're joking." Much to Sakura's chagrin.

That's when another construction worker, Giichi told Tazuna that he decided to quit. Enraged, Tazuna asked, "Now you're going to quit on me, just like that?! You're kidding!" Giichi told him, "Look, I stayed on because of our friendship, but I'm putting my life on the line every day I stay here. Gato and his thugs will show up eventually. When they do, they'll kill you and the bridge will never get finished anyway. It's a lost cause, Tazuna. Why don't we stop now while we can still get out of this alive?" Tazuna growled, "No chance, this is OUR bridge. Our island is poor and it will stay like that until the bridge connects us with the mainland. Commerce, trade and hope! That's what we're building here!"

Giichi replied, "There's not gonna be much hope if we're all dead." Angered, Tazuna growled again, "It's already noon, let's break for lunch." Giichi tried to tell him, "Tazuna! Let's not end it like this." To which the stubborn old man told him, "Save your breath. Oh, and Giichi. Don't bother coming back after lunch!" Meanwhile, Naruto and Yukimura were still trying to master climbing trees without their hands. After getting on their feet they raced up one more time. Yukimura had no clue that Zori watched her earlier in the day.

Back in the main town, Sakura was with Tazuna, and asked, "Uh...Where are we going?" Tazuna told her, 'You wanna eat tonight, don't you? I gotta pick up some things for dinner." Everywhere Sakura looked, people were in poverty. Men walking around with signs, children begging on the streets for food or money. They soon reached the grocer but the store had hardly anything, just a few vegetables. A man walked behind Sakura and noticed her purse, he tried to grab a hold of it, but instead ended up touching her rear end. Feeling an uncomfortable hand touch her, Sakura kicked him really hard and shouted, "YOU PERVERT!"

As they left Tazuna remarked, "Wow, you really surprised me back there. The girls around here don't fight like that." Angered, Sakura told him, "They SHOULD, something's seriously wrong here!" Then she felt another tug at her butt. She spun round and saw that it was a little girl from off the street, she was about 6 or 7 years old, and probably an orphan at that. She held out her hands and smiled at Sakura for some food. Feeling sorry for her, Sakura gave the girl some candy and she ran off into the crowd after thanking her. Tazuna explained, "This is how it's been since Gato came here. The children suffer, and the adults are afraid to stand up to him. They've lost all hope, that's why we have to finish the bridge. It will bring commerce and trade and much more importantly, that bridge is a symbol of courage, we must restore the spirit of our people. When the bridge is finished, people will start to believe again...They'll believe that they can live with dignity, we can't let Gato stop us!"

Later that evening, Naruto and Yukimura returned just in time for dinner at Tazuna's house. The old man was pleased and said, "This is fantastic. Its been ages since we've had so many guests around our table." Naruto and Yukimura ate swiftly, yet as soon as they asked for seconds, the thought of more food caused Naruto to regurgitate. Sakura, disgusted, told him, "Don't eat so much if you're gonna puke it up!" Yukimura sighed, "Aunt Kushina's gonna hear about this when we get back." Naruto wiped the puke from his mouth and told Sakura, "I..have to eat. It's the only possible way I'll get strong enough to beat Sasuke." Anko told him, "Yeah, but puking won't help one way or another, Naruto."

Tsunami started washing the dishes while Naruto and Yukimura were having green tea. Sakura then noticed a picture on the wall with part of it taken out. She then asked, "Excuse me, this picture is torn, is there some reason for that?" She turned to Inari and asked him, "Inari, you kept glancing at it all through dinner. It looks like there was someone else in this picture but they got cut out. I mean that's kinda strange, isn't it?" The family froze up and then Tsunami told the pink haired genin, "It's my husband." Inari then left the room, knowing what his grandfather was about to say. Tsunami went after him to try and cheer him up. As soon as they had both left the dining room, Tazuna said, "They used to call him a hero in this land."

Sakura looked as Inari left and asked, "Inari's so...I mean, what happened to him?" Anko asked Tazuna, "Mind telling us what happened?" Tazuna explained, "He wasn't his real father, he came into our family later, and he brought so much happiness, he and Inari were very close. In those days, Inari used to laugh all the time...but then, all that ended. He never laughs or smiles anymore, ever since the day everything changed." Tazuna then told Squad 7 the story about how the man, Kaiza helped Inari when he was in trouble, of how he and Inari were inseperable, and how he entered the family as Tsunami's second husband. He then explained that it was a year later that Gato showed up to take control over the Land of Waves and how Kaiza stood up to him and was executed by his samurai bodyguards, Zori and Waraji. Thus frightening the people into submission and dashing all of Inari's hopes and dreams. "Since then, Inari's changed, so has Tsunami and all our people. We lost our will."

Yukimura was furious, not because of how Gato could torment a small boy into hopelessness, but the fact that he hired samurai to do the deed. She growled, "Those two...The men who killed Kaiza...They've lost their honor! Honor is everything to us samurai. Those who have lost all their honor, must then also lose their head. This is _Bushido_: The way of the warrior." Naruto looked back on how Inari treated him with contempt and understood what he was going through. He tried to get up, but fell flat on his face instead. Sakura asked, "Naruto? You okay?" Anko sighed, "Alright, bucko take the day off. You're all outta chakra, you'll die if you push any harder." Naruto replied to Tazuna, "I'm gonna prove it..." Sakura asked, "What are you gonna prove?" The blond ninja got up and told Sakura, "I'll prove to him that in this world...there ARE real heroes!"


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Battle on the bridge! Zabuza returns!

The following morning at Zabuza's hideout, Haku decided to open up to his feminine side. He changed into a pink kimono like outfit, traditional sandals and let down his hair. He then left the compound to collect herbs that would treat Zabuza's snake venom, to anyone that spotted him he'd easily be mistaken for a girl. As he was collecting herbs, he noticed a bird fly onto his shoulder, then as 3 more of them were on top of Naruto's unconscious body. He had been training for so long that he passed out. Haku noticed his headband and remembered him from their previous encounter. He extended his hand out to him and the birds took to the sky, as they saw Haku's hand as a threat.

Back at Tazuna's home, Sakura and Anko were the only two members of squad 7 still there. Sakura said with a yawn, "Good morning everyone." She sat down and Tsunami served them all breakfast. Tazuna asked Anko, "Naruto and Yukimura aren't here? Looks like they were out all night again." Sakura told him, "They've both gone off to that forest. Naruto was completely determined, he went out to climb trees in the dark. Still, I'm worried about him. He could've died from using too much chakra." Anko told Tazuna, "Yukimura just left around sunrise, she said that a samurai has to train early in the morning." Tsunami told them, "Well I certainly hope they're okay. Two children spending the night in the woods alone." Anko reassured her, "Naruto may be headstrong, but the kid's the son of the Fourth Hokage. He'll be fine with Yukimura at his side." Inari just sat there staring at his food.

In the forest, Zori returned to find Yukimura and try getting to acquaint himself with her. He found her meditating after a long session of training. She was still in her training garb, but her body dripped with sweat. As he tried to approach her carefully, he stepped on a fallen branch that was on the forest floor. Yukimura heard this and drew her sword turning around and shouted, "Who's there?!" Zori reassured her, "Easy, my name's Zori and I'm not yo-" As soon as he mentioned his name, Yukimura realized he was one of the men that killed Kaiza and she tried her best to avenge the innocent man. Zori succeeded in blocking Yukimura's attacks with his own sword, then she asked, "You kill an innocent fisherman who did little more than say no, and then dash his son's future away in front of him?! Where is your sense of honor?!"

Zori was shocked that she learned about what he and Waraji did to Kaiza, and that how she questioned about his honor. He withdrew his sword and told her, "Listen, back then all I cared about was following orders and getting my paycheck. Honor didn't really matter to me until...until I saw you training here yesterday." Yukimura was stunned, "You were watching me?" Zori nodded, "Yeah. I was leaving with my boss from a business meet of his, and I heard you using that bokuto." He then showed her his sword. She was amazed that he had kept it in such perfect condition. "If you wanna reclaim your lost honor, then why not leave Gato and join me? I'm from the land of Iron, the home of the samurai." Zori's eyes widened, to think that she was from the samurai holy land, and followed orders from Shogun Mifune.

Coming to a realization, the man got onto his knees and bowed before Yukimura telling her, "Please, great one: take me on as your apprentice." This was surprising to Yukimura, but Zori explained that he wished now to leave Gato and follow the path of Bushido like she did. Yukimura smiled at him and nodded, "Yes, I'll train you. Now you should head back before Gato suspects something's wrong." Zori nodded and left the forest.

Haku, meanwhile reached for Naruto and nudged him. He said, "You'll catch cold if you sleep here. Wake up." Naruto awoke and asked, "Who the heck are you? Oh! I mean...Hi there, where did you come from? You know, what're you doin' out here and all that." Haku replied, "I'm gathering herbs." Naruto looked at him, "Herbs?" Haku nodded, "Yes that's right. They're for treating illnesses and healing wounds." Naruto decided to help gather herbs as well. Believing Haku to be a girl, Naruto asked, "You start work early, huh sis?" Haku replied, "I like it early. It's calm, but I didn't think I'd find someone out here sleeping in the woods." Naruto chuckled and told him, "I'm training!" He asked, "So are you a ninja? Because I noticed that headband you're wearing. Or are you just making a fashion statement?" Naruto told him, "You noticed that? Alright! Only super cool ninja can wear these." Haku raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? I see that's very impressive...but does that mean you're training for something dangerous?" Naruto said, "I'm just developing my skills so that I can get stronger."

Haku asked, "You seem very strong now. Isn't that enough?" Naruto shook his head, "No, no! I need to get stronger and stronger so that I can keep practicing." Haku asked, "How so? Why is it so important?" Naruto replied, "So I can become the best ninja in my village! Then everyone will know who I am and they'll all respect me! There's also a certain kid that I have to prove something to!" Haku asked him, "So are you doing this for the certain person? Or are you doing all this training for yourself?" Naruto raised an eyebrow and Haku then asked, "Is there...someone who's precious to you?" Naruto then remembered about his parents, Yukimura and Sakura. He cared about all of them.

Haku also remembered what life for him was like as a child. He was alone on the streets when Zabuza showed up and took the boy under his wing. This also caused Naruto to remember how he fought Mizuki the night he learned about being the jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox. Haku picked up his basket and left for the compound, "You will get strong. VERY strong. Goodbye, we'll meet again some time. Oh, by the way...I'm a boy." This caused Naruto to freak out. Yukimura found Naruto and told him, "Naruto! Did you forget about breakfast? Your mom's gonna have a fit if she hears that." Naruto smiled at her.

Later, Sakura and Anko went out looking for Naruto and Yukimura. Then a kunai fell to the ground, and Naruto was high up in the tree giggling and smiling. Sakura was stunned by this as she looked at him, blushing and smiling, "Whoa! Naruto can climb that high now, using his chakra? That's so cool!" Anko smiled at her student's success. Naruto asked them both, "What do ya think? High enough for you guys? I mean its a long way down, huh?" As he got up, he lost his balance on his left foot and was beginning to fall. Sakura was shocked that he could die. Anko was ready to help him out, but then he ended up standing on the bottom of the branch he was just on. He then smiled at them, "Just kidding! You guys really fell for it!" Sakura glared at him and shouted, "Naruto you idiot! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Anko told him, "Just a heads up, Naruto! Don't lose focus or ya could fall, fo-" That's when Naruto lost focus and began falling out of the tree.

Anko facepalmed, "I knew this would happen." Sakura was horrified and rushed over to Naruto in an attempt to catch him. Yet that was when Yukimura rushed up the trunk of the tree and caught him by the leg. She told him, "You really have to stop it with the pranks, cousin." Naruto gave a disappointed look at Yukimura, while Sakura sighed in relief. Anko remarked, "It'll be a miracle if I actually stay sane through this." Back at Tazuna's house, Inari looked out at the ocean and then back to the picture of Kaiza. He muttered, "Naruto...Naruto Namikaze, huh?"Back at Zabuza's hideout, the Demon of the Hidden Mist was fully healed and ready to fight again. This time wearing a sleeveless shirt. Haku remarked, "You're recovering quickly." Zabuza smiled and told the protege, "Just a little longer, Haku." To which the boy nodded.

That night, Naruto had finally reached the top of the tree, and saw Sasuke atop another one. Sasuke was training to control his chakra under Kakashi's orders. The copy ninja was in crutches since he overused his sharingan. Sasuke just smiled and told Naruto and Yukimura, "Let's go back." To which they both agreed at. The three of them then returned to the village. At Tazuna's house, Tsunami was serving dinner when Naruto and Yukimura walked in the door. Tazuna asked, "What have YOU been up to? You look like something the cat dragged in." Sasuke was standing near the doorway and Naruto told Tazuna, "We both made it! We climbed all the way to the top!" Anko smiled at them, "Cool! Now we're gonna head on. As of tomorrow, Naruto and Yukimura will act as bodyguards for Tazuna. Oh! I'll also have Kakashi and Sasuke accompany you as well."

Naruto smiled and cheered at this, bringing him and Yukimura onto the floor. Yukimura sighed and smiled, "Naruto, how do your parents keep up with this?" Sakura, Anko and Tazuna laughed at this sight. After they had finished eating, Tazuna stated, "In a few more days, the bridge will be finished. I have you to thank for that.' Tsunami said, "You've all done great, but you've still got to be careful." Tazuna then asked them, "I've been meaning to ask you this, but I haven't got the chance until now. Why did you stay and protect me, even after you found out I lied to bring you here?" Anko told him, "Cowards have no courage, but with the help of a strong leader, fear dies. It's something along the lines that the First Hokage said." Inari looked at Anko and then to Naruto, who was tired from working so hard. He was soon haunted by the memories of his father, and how he was executed by Gato. He then began to tear up, as he asked, "But why?" Naruto asked him, "What'd you say?" Inari got up and told him, "All this stupid training is just a waste of time! Gato's got a whole army, they'll beat you down and they'll destroy you! These cool things you all say, they don't mean anything! No matter what you do, the strong always win and the weak always lose!"

Naruto just replied, "Just speak for yourself, it won't be like that for me. You got that?" Inari demanded, "Why don't you be quiet?! Just looking at you makes me sick! You don't know anything about this country, you're just butting in! Always laughing and playing around, you have no idea what it's like to suffer and be treated like dirt!" That was when Naruto balled his hands into fists, and Yukimura thought, '_Inari! That was too far! You just pushed Naruto's button big time!'_ Naruto told him, "Listen to yourself, whining and complaining, like some sorry little victim! You can whimper all day for all I care! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A COWARD!" Inari's eyes widened at the horrible truth. Naruto then got out of his seat and walked towards the guest room. As he remembered what Inari claimed, he remembered when he was 4 years old and a mob of villagers nearly beat him to death, but he had his parents come and save him. He knew what it was like to be treated like trash.

Inari then sat on the dock, looking at the moon. Kakashi walked up behind him and asked, "Can I talk to you?" Anko had told him what happened with those two. Kakashi told the boy, "Naruto can be a little...harsh sometimes, but he doesn't hate you. Your grandfather told them what happened...to your father. You probably don't know this, but Yukimura also never had a father. In fact, she didn't know either her parents, as Naruto's family act like her parent figures. Yet, Naruto didn't have a single friend in our village. Still, I've never seen him cry, sulk or give up. He's always eager to jump in. He wants to be respected, that's his dream, and he'll put his life on the line for that in a heartbeat. My guess is, he just got tired of crying and decided to do something about it. Even though he's young and still learning, he knows what it means to be strong, like your father did. I think he knows better than any of us, what you're going through. What Naruto told you earlier, as cruel as it sounds, he probably told himself that a thousand times." This revelation stunned Inari as it made him remember his father.

The next morning, Anko, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke were to accompany Tazuna as he finished the bridge. Anko told Tsunami and Inari, "Alright! I leave Yukimura and Naruto in your capable hands. He's pushed himself to his limits overdoing himself, and Yukimura will watch over him until he wakes up." Tsunami asked Kakashi, "What about you? You're still recovering yourself." Kakashi replied, "Why? Do I look wobbly? I'll be okay." Tazuna then gave them the signal to depart and they headed toward the bridge. Elsewhere, Gato was on the phone with Zabuza, demanding, "Still wasting time licking your wounds? I hired you to do a job you know! ARE YOU LISTENING ZABUZA?! HEY!" Then Zabuza crushed the phone with his left foot and asked Haku, "Haku? You ready?" The boy nodded with his mask on.

Naruto then woke up and looked around. Rushing downstairs to find Tsunami. Tsunami turned to the boy and told him, "Oh, Naruto! Your sensei wanted to let you rest. You got the day off." Much to his chagrin, he took off his pajamas and dressed himself, as he decided to head over to the bridge. As he was making his way across the forest, something caught his eye: the corpse of a wild pig. Yet it looked as if it had been killed by humans than being mauled by a predator. While at the bridge, which was nearly completed, Tazuna asked in horror, "Hold on! What the heck is this?!" He saw all his crewmen horribly wounded. He demanded, "What happened?! Someone was here! Someone had got to them!" Kakashi had his suspicions. Back with Tsunami and Inari, they didn't know that Gato had sent his samurai to take them hostage. Yet after meeting with Yukimura this morning, Zori was now beginning to doubt whether he should follow his orders, or act to reclaim his honor as a samurai.

On the bridge, a thick fog began to cover the channel. Anko and Kakashi noticed this and got ready for battle, Sasuke and Sakura did the same in spite of the fact that Sakura really hated the Uchiha boy. Anko muttered, "I knew it! That bastard's still alive!" Kakashi added on, "He just couldn't wait for round 2!" Sakura asked, "Kakashi sensei, Anko sensei, it's Zaubza isn't it? This is his hidden mist jutsu!" Zabuza's voice rang out, "Sorry I kept you wating, Kakashi, I see you've still got those brats with you, and that Jonin." He noted Sasuke quivering and remarked, "That one's still trembling...pitiful!" As Sasuke's eyes widened, multiple water clones of Zabuza appeared before them. Yet Sasuke corrected him, "I'm trembling with...excitement!" Kakashi gave the signal and Sasuke brought down every single water clone there was.

Zabuza and Haku appeared before them, "Ooh! So you could see that they were water clones! The brat's improving! Looks like you've got a rival, Haku." Haku stated, "So it seems."


End file.
